Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Tax on plastic bags sees drop in plastic litter on the beaches


The Marine Conservation Society (MCS)has revealed that the introduction of the 5p per bag charge, which came into force in England last October, has had a direct effect. The number of plastic carrier bags found littered on the beaches has dropped by almost 40% in just one year.
As per estimates, 80% fewer single-use bags have been used by shoppers, and this will be a great boon to marine wildlife.
This has been reported in news.sky,com dated 22 November 2016.
The MCS Great British Beach Clean report has indicated that in 2015 there were, on average, 11 plastic bags per 100m of coastline cleaned. The figure has dropped to under seven bags per 100m in 2016 - this is the lowest number seen for 10 years. An MCS Beachwatch manager, has credited this drop to the 5p charge.
With regard to marine wildlife, animals eat the plastic bags thinking that they're jellyfish. Analysis if corpses of dead animals have shown that their stomachs are filled with plastic and they have just starved to death. In the global context, the UK's improvements are a drop in the ocean because nearly 500 billion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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