Although it may seem like only yesterday the ‘big seven’ supermarkets announced they were introducing a 5p charge for plastic carrier bags, the announcement was actually made in October 2015, and newly released figures have revealed just what a success story it has been.

Plastic bag sales across Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and the Co-operative Group have dropped by an incredible 86% since the levy was introduced nearly three years ago. Customers bought almost 300 million fewer bags last year compared to 2016/17 - a reduction of almost 25%.

To look at it another way, when the levy came into force, people in England was using an average of 140 plastic bags each per year. Now, however, that figure stands at just 19 bags per person. And, according to a study by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), with fewer plastic bags coming into circulation, there has also been an estimated 50% reduction in plastic bag marine litter.

Thomas Maes, Marine Litter Scientist at Cefas said: “Every plastic bag not purchased is one which will not end up in our sea. It is encouraging to see the efforts to reduce plastic bag usage by all of society, whether the public, industry, NGOs or government. These figures show that by working together we can tackle the marine litter problem by reducing, reusing and recycling.”

Here at TrakRap, we couldn’t agree more. The best way to solve the problem of plastic waste is to work together and ensure the only plastics being used are 100% recyclable.