Why are plastic bags so bad for the environment?
A plastic carrier bag will take up to 1000 years to break down once it is in the landfill. Compare that to its useful life which can be measured in minutes – the length of time it takes to get our shopping home from the store before being dumped in the dustbin. Some bags end up in the sea; either through deliberate litter or air borne from the landfill. Out at sea, plastic carrier bags pose great danger to marine life. Globally, an estimated one million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from entanglement in, or ingestion of, plastics. A shocking story reveals that a Minke whale stranded on a beach in Normandy was found to have 800g of plastic bags and packaging within its stomach. Amongst the identifiable litter were 1 English plastic and foil crisp packet, 2 English supermarket bags, 7 coloured dustbin fragments, 7 transparent plastic bags and 1 food container. Other bags end up clogging drains which can cause flooding and create a breeding ground for dis
