Say NO to disposable plastic carrier bags and choose to reuse instead.

When you buy a Gecco shopping bag we hope you are making more than just a purchase. We hope you are making a pledge to cut down on your use of plastic carrier bags.

In the UK alone 13 billion carrier bags are used each year. Most end up in landfill sites taking around 100 years to degrade. Others end up destroying sea-life including whales, dolphins and seals by blocking their guts. Some marine species actually mistake plastic bags for their normal prey of jelly fish, with deadly consequences.

We can change this. The introduction of a levy on plastic bags in Ireland has led to many consumers switching to re-usable shopping bags: annual plastic bag usage has dropped from 330 per person to just 20 per person. There is no such levy in the UK. The UK retail sector has, however, agreed to take action and has set itself a shared objective with the government to reduce the overall environmental impact of carrier bags by 25% by 2008.

This will only happen if more people make a conscious decision to say NO to disposable plastic carrier bags and choose to reuse instead.

Plastic Facts (Carrier bags and plastic bottles and pots)

It is estimated that if 30% of the current consumption of thermoplastics in the UK could be recycled to replace virgin raw materials, substantial energy savings would be achieved and carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by about 3 million tonnes/year. (Source:ETSU)

Of the 2.4 million tonnes of plastic waste, an estimated 1,400,000 tonnes is household plastic waste, 200,000 tonnes is 'process scrap', and 800,000 tonnes is commercial waste. 61% of the total plastic waste from Western Europe is packaging. (Source:AEA Technology)

Source: http://www.sepa.org.uk/green/facts_figures.htm#plastic

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