Free has its cost.................    

• There are currently 1 million plastic carrier bags being used per MINUTE worldwide.
• Plastic bags can take up to 500 + years to breakdown. A plastic bag you use today, will still be around long after you have gone!
• Each adult receives on average 300 disposable bags per year
• In the UK, only 1 in 200 plastic bags is recycled.
• Cleaning up of litter such as plastic bags costs the government millions of pounds each year.
• In the UK at least 200 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks ever year.

Some plastic bags hanging out with some daffodils down at baiter park this Spring.

• According to scientists, the pollution of plastic in the oceans will remain for centuries to come (unless there was some way of sieving the ocean). Every sq ft of the seas worldwide contain plastic litter in the form of particles or unbroken down items which can eventually end up in the human food chain (having been consumed by fish which in turn are consumed by humans).
• One of the largest rubbish dumps in the world is the great pacific garbage patch floating in the ocean, which covers an area three times the size of the UK.

At least 50 towns, villages & cities in the UK plan to phase out plastic bags- we CAN make a difference. 

• The plastic that ends up in the seas, blocks the insides of marine species such as whales, dolphins, seals, puffins, fulmars, turtles and many fish. Once the animal dies, the plastic is re-released into the ocean.
• On land, wildlife and domestic animals may ingest or get trapped in plastic, resulting in death for some.
• Globally, an estimated 1 million birds, 100,000s marine life & land mammals die every year from entanglement and ingestion.
• Bangladesh banned the plastic bag as it was thought to have played a major part in flooding.http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=5029