Originally published in April 2018, this story has been updated to include the latest facts, figures and references.
A novelty in the 1970s, plastic shopping bags are now an omnipresent product found in every corner of the world. Produced at a rate of up to one trillion bags per year, they are showing up in the darkest depths of the ocean to the summit of Mount Everest to the polar ice caps. Being so widespread, plastic bags are intensifying some major environmental challenges.
So where did they come from and how did we reach this point?
1933 – Polyethylene, the most commonly used plastic, is created by accident at a chemical plant in Northwich, England. While polyethene had been created in small batches before, this was the first synthesis of the material that was industrially practical. Seeing its potential, it was initially used in secret by the British military during World War II.
1965 – The one-piece polyethylene shopping bag is patented by the Swedish company Celloplast. Designed by engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin, the plastic bag quickly begins to replace cloth and plastic in Europe.
1979 – Already controlling 80 per cent of the bag market in Europe plastic bags begin to spread to the United States and other countries around the world. Plastic companies begin to aggressively market their single-use product as superior to paper and reusable bags.
1982 – Safeway and Kroger, two of the biggest supermarket chains in the United States, switch to plastic bags. Though they are yet to be fully accepted by shoppers, single-use plastic bags are cheaper than alternatives, and more stores begin to follow Safeway and Kroger’s switch. By the end of the decade, plastic bags will have almost entirely replaced paper bags around the world.
1997 – Sailor and researcher Charles Moore discovers the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest of several gyres in the world’s oceans where immense amounts of plastic waste have accumulated. Threatening marine life, this immense collection of marine litter and plastic pollution showcases the long-lasting and harmful effects of single-use plastic products.
2002 – Bangladesh is the first country in the world to implement a ban on thin plastic bags, after it was found they played a key role in clogging drainage systems during disastrous flooding. Other countries begin to follow suit.
2011 – Worldwide, one million plastic bags are consumed every minute.
2018 – As of July 2018, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) finds that 127 out of 192 countries reviewed have enacted some form of national legislation to address the problem of plastic bags.
2018 – #BeatPlasticPollution is chosen as the theme of World Environment Day, hosted by India. Companies and governments around the world continue to announce new pledges to tackle plastic waste.
#BeatPlasticPollution is the theme of World Environment Day 2018.
2019 – The European Union’s (EU) Directive on single-use plastic products takes effect as the EU aims to lead the fight against marine litter and plastic pollution.
2020 – Recognizing its massive waste problem, China commits to strengthening national plastic pollution control, ushering in an era of single-use plastic reduction.
2021 – On the 20th of October, the governments of Peru and Rwanda proposed a draft resolution on an internationally legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. On the 6th of December, Japan submitted another draft resolution focusing on marine plastic pollution.
