The Cuckfield Carrier
Plastic bag-free Cuckfield
Why we need you!
Plastic bags are typically used for only 20 minutes before being thrown out, but take up to 1,000 years to rot away.
Some startling facts
- more than 1 million plastic bags are consumed worldwide every minute
- 13 billion plastic bags are issued each year - an average 300 per adult per year
- 88% of shoppers put shopping into free carrier bags
- shoppers use an average of 3-4 bags each trip
- 45% shoppers have bought a bag for life - but only 12% use them!
Devasting Effects
- Marine animals mistake plastic bags for food and die slow deaths
- Plastic makes up 80% of litter on roads, parks and beaches, and 90% of floating litter in the ocean
- There are over 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean. The plastic pieces act as a sponge for chemicals soaking up a million times greater concentration of deadly compounds, such as PCBs and DDE, than the surrounding seawater
- More than a million birds and 100,000 marine animals, including mammals and endangered turtles, die each year from plastic debris
- Whales, dolphins, turtles and other marine life regularly mistake plastic bags for food and swallow them. Ingesting plastic bags can cause blockages, infections, starvation and death. After the animal dies, its carcass decomposes and the plastic is free to roam the ocean and kill again.
- Plastics may never fully degrade, ultimately they break down into smaller pieces or plastic 'dust' that can be ingested. Ultimately this type of plastic and any toxins absorbed by it may be passed up the food chain to fish and to human consumers
- Britain's coast is washed with a toxic 'plastic soup' carried on the tide which threatens our seabirds and marine wildlife:
- gannets off Cornwall suffer a long painful death, unable to feed or fly after getting entangled
- dolphins scoop up plastic bags and carry them around, risking strangulation and suffocation
- plastic bags trap seals and sea lions, prevent whales from digesting and kill birds by the thousands
- plastic bags wrap themselves around living coral and quickly kill them.
Here's the good news...
Every single person can make a big difference.
Saying no to plastic bags and using reusable alternatives like our very own Cuckfield Carrier (specially designed for us by Lorna and Tim Llewellyn) will immediately lessen the impact on our environment and wildlife.
You can't put a price on that. If everyone knew the longterm effects of plastic bags, we would all switch to reusable alternatives.
Let's stop using plastic bags and help our village make a huge difference to the environment and its wildlife.