Plastic Bags Facts

Canada's Consumption

• Canadians consume 9 -15 billion plastic bags annually.

• Residents of the City of Toronto alone use 800 million plastic bags annually.
• Ontarians collectively use almost 80 plastic bags per second; that equals 7,000,000 bags per day.
• The energy used to manufacture just 8.7 plastic bags is equivalent to driving a car 1 kilometre.
• A plastic bag may be used for only 5 minutes, but can take up to 1,000 years to decompose.
• 47 per cent of all wind-borne litter from landfills is plastic, mainly in bag form.

Plastic Bags Production

• Most plastic bags are made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
• HDPE is a plastic made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource.
• The two main sources of energy used to make plastic bags are oil and natural gas.
• In 2004, the manufacturing of plastic bags accounted for 4% of the world‘s total oil production.
• 22,243 million barrels of oil produced worldwide.
• 889 million barrels of oil were used to make plastic bags.

Environmental Impact

• HPDE grocery bags are non-biodegradable and non-recyclable.
• They take hundreds of years to decompose.
• The manufacturing produces 1.1 kg of atmospheric pollution, contributing to acid rain and smog which cause greenhouse gasses.

Health Impact

• Making HDPE produces toxic emissions like carbon and ethanol.
• They infiltrate the food chain and endanger our health, safety and access to clean water during their decomposition in landfills.