According to the information received by the AA correspondent from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, in 1977, depending on the development of plastic, which entered human life in the 1900s, plastic bags, which can be easily found by everyone, with an average lifespan of 15 minutes, but which take a thousand years to dissolve in nature, were started to be given at shopping points.
These plastic bags, which are given after shopping in every store, are produced from petroleum-based polyethylene. When polyethylene materials become waste, they become harmful to ecosystems and nature. Only 1% of plastic bags, which are preferred due to their resistance to outdoor conditions and humidity, flexibility and superior chemical resistance, can be recycled.
The worldwide production value of plastics, which entered human life at the beginning of the 20th century, was around 1.5 million tons in the 1950s, and today it has exceeded 335 million tons on an annual basis.
It is noteworthy that at least half of the 8 billion tons of plastic material thought to have been produced so far has been left to nature as waste, mainly accumulated in the seas and oceans.
While it was stated that before 2019, the amount of plastic bag production in Turkey was around 35 billion pieces and a person uses an average of 440 plastic bags per year, the use of plastic bags in Turkey decreased by 75 percent with the pricing initiated on January 1, 2019, and thus to 354 thousand tons. formation of plastic waste is prevented.
Approximately 14 thousand 640 tons of greenhouse gas emissions were prevented
In addition, when the average weight of a plastic bag is taken as 8 grams, approximately 14,640 tons of greenhouse gas emissions have been prevented.
With the decrease in the use of plastic bags, the import of plastic raw materials required for the production of plastic bags in Turkey has also been reduced, saving approximately 2.44 billion liras.
Applied in more than 60 countries around the world
Shopping bags are sold for a fee in more than 60 countries around the world.
Of these, plastic bags are provided for a fee in Sweden, Canada, Finland, England, Germany, France and Japan, while a partial or total ban is imposed in some countries such as Australia, Cameroon and Kenya.
