Plastic Bag Facts

1. Currently our planet uses well over 500,000,000,000 (that's 500 billion) plastic bags annually, or almost 1 million per minute.

2. Single-use bags made of high-density polyethylene will accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years. Four out of five grocery bags used in the US are plastic.

3. In 2001, Ireland used 1.2 billion disposable plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%.

4. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.

5. Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.

6. The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store.

7. Nearly 80% of the plastic trash in the US comes from bags and packaging and only 3.2% is recycled.

8. Each reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime.