Australians use approx 3.6 billion
plastic bags each year. These bags are made from High density polyethylene.
The average small shop hands out between 25,000 - 30,000 plastic
bags per year.
Large supermarket chain stores hand out about 300 million plastic
shopping bags per year: that's about 10,700 tonnes.Plastic that
ends up in our oceans, drains and soil.
On top of the significant environmental costs, widespread use of
plastic bags is also costly in terms of dollars and cents.Apart
from the price of the bags themselves, which is four to six cents
each, a great deal of our taxed dollars goes into collecting the
bags (i.e. cleaning up!) once they've been discarded.
The only solution to this devastating problem is to switch to reusable
shopping bags.
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