• In Canada-10 billion of these bags are handed out to consumers each year. In the United-States- 380 billion; And in Australia - 6 billion .

• Globally, the number is almost 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000).  

• These plastic bags can take up to 400 years before biodegrading. Many of them are carried
  off by the wind and end up floating in the ocean for years.

• Hundreds of thousands of fish, turtles,
  birds and sea mammals ingest them and die unnecessarily each year.
  

• The quantity of plastics bags used in Ireland has been reduced by 90% after a "plastax" was passed in 2002.

• On October 11, 2005, France voted to ban non biodegradable plastic bags by 2010.
  
   
  

The Financial Cost of
Plastic Bag Waste

• The recycling of non biodegradable plastic bags is of little interest to recycling facilities; the market price for recycled bags is $ 55 per tonne, and 150,000 bags are required for one tonne.

• The energy and funds expended collecting and processing far exceed the $55 selling price after recycling.

• It is less costly to send them to landfill, but even then, many are picked up again by the wind from landfill sites and scattered into the  wilderness.

The best solution remains waste minimization by avoiding   their use in the first place.