Plastic bags have long been a waste problem that harms the environment:

• Every year 20 million Australians use around 5 billion plastic check-out bags.
• A person’s use of a plastic check-out bag can be counted in minutes – however long it takes to get from the shops to their homes. Plastic bags however, can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment.
• In the marine environment plastic bag litter is lethal, killing many birds, whales, seals and turtles every year. After an animal is killed by plastic bags its body decomposes and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again.
• A Bryde's whale died on a Cairns beach after ingesting 6 square metres of plastic - including plastic bags. Such obstructions in animals can cause severe pain, distress and death.
• On land, plastic bag litter can block drains and trap birds. They also kill livestock. One farmer near Mudgee NSW, carried out an autopsy on a dead calf and found 8 plastic bags in its stomach. The loss of this calf cost the farmer around $500.
• Plastic bags are not free to consumers – they are actually adding an estimated $100 million a year to Australia’s grocery bills.
• At least 80 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks. Australian local and State Governments spend over $200 million a year picking up litter.
• Not all litter is deliberate. 47% of wind borne litter escaping from landfills is plastic – much of this is plastic bags.
• Over 200,000 plastic check-out bags are dumped in landfills every hour.
• Only 5% of Australia’s plastic bags are currently being recycled, despite recycling facilities being available at major supermarkets.
• In many council areas, plastic bags are the single main contaminant of kerbside recycling.
• Plastic bags are a by-product of the oil industry. Over 3 billion HDPE plastic bags are imported into Australia every year.
• Since March 2002, Ireland has reduced its plastic check-out bag usage by 90% and in April 2003 Coles Bay in Tasmania successfully banned plastic check-out bags in all their retail stores. In the first twelve months, Coles Bay stopped the use of 350,000 plastic check-out bags.
• Planet Ark has since worked with the communities of Huskisson, Kangaroo Valley, Mogo and Oyster Bay in NSW and Birregurra, Cannon’s Creek, Metung and Murtoa in Victoria to help them also become Plastic Bag Free Towns.
• Over 10 million reusable bags have now been sold by Coles, Woolworths and Safeway stores. At only $1 each, they're a cheap way to save Australia's wildlife!

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