On average, British consumers use 290 plastic bags a year or 4 bags every 5 days, totaling at least 17.5 billion bags per year in total.
Posted by envirostats on Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The nine major supermarket chains distribute more than 17.5 billion bags a year. Other sources were not mentioned.
Contrast this to Stat 0391 for Israel and see why Stat 0391 was amazing and put some context to the magnitude of the same problem in Israel, but on a much more drastic scale (740 bags per person per year).
I would like to take this opportunity of a short entry to address another matter about sources on this blog. The source of this statistic is the United Kingdom’s The Independent, but without research source (and year for statistic as a result), although I would bet money on the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). They have metric tonnes of statistics about the UK as Statistics Canada has for Canada, and I have a link on the right.
So what to do about these unreferenced statistics in the media when you know they should be referenced? Well, for general consumption, it comes down to whether you like the specific media or not. I just try to find what I deem a “fair” source, and Wikipedia has what looks to be a pretty fair article about the Independent. Wikipedia has its critics but this articled talked about everything from how the Independent tries to take a neutral stance, winning National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards to being called a “viewspaper” instead of a “newspaper” by recent British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Wikipedia article was fair enough for me, and the paper was fair enough to me. They have their own reputation to uphold by what they print so I will take the chance they didn’t print some scandalous number here to forward their agenda. However, I will caution if you use this formally in any way where you might have to be accountable for it, like on a school paper, that you check with UK DEFRA for their numbers, which will hopefully be the same or very similar, and cite that source.
If you have opinions on The Independent you feel other readers here should know, please put it in a Comment. Thank you.
As an additional point added later to the original post, on Sep 28 2007, the Daily Telegraph came out with a statistic: In Britain, over 13 billion bags are issued every year to shoppers – roughly 220 per person every year (or 3 bags every 5 days). Contrary to The Independent, the Daily Telegraph has a Conservative political stance, according to what seems to be a fair review in Wikipedia that pointed out connections to the Tory Party in Britain and the paper’s nickname being the Daily Torygraph. This statistic came out to support the idea that a tax on plastic bags would not work to reduce overall solid waste and other environmental impact, although it may reduce the use of plastic bags. The story did not reference the situation in Ireland where plastic bags use was reduced by 90% with just a small tax (see Stat 0391), but mentioned how the same bill was defeated in Scotland last year. Certainly, one could see the incentive to make the value 13 billion bags per year instead of 17.5 billion. Of course, I have no count, but I’ll be on the fact that if The Independent can claim the nine major supermarket chains alone handed out 17.5 billion bags, 4.5 billion more than the quote in the Daily Telegraph, that the total must be more than 13 billion. This was why I did not include the Daily Telegraph figures in the headline statistic here, or correct it. I only mention it for those wanting a separate count to decide on which they would like to use for their purposes. [Envirostats author]
- Headline statistic by The Independent, Sep 04 2007 (on-line Sep 26 2007)
- Alternative statistic by The Daily Telegraph, Sep 28 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007 at 11:37 am
[...] On average, British consumers use 290 plastic bags a year or 4 bags every 5 days, totalling at least… Stop using plastic bags guys! They contribute to our dependence on foreign oil and their production produces greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming. What’s more, there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean and more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic. Get yourself a handful of reusable bags and use them! [...]