Reusable Jute Bags Reduce Demand For Plastic Bags By More Than Six Billion In Two Years

The figures have been released by Jutexpo, the world’s biggest supplier of reusable jute bags, which has more than 80 per cent of the UK market.

Jutexpo revealed that the average shopper previously used three single use plastic bags a week and a jute bag replaces the need for as many as 624 disposable plastic bags over its four-year lifespan.

Sam Turner, compliance director of Jutexpo, said: “The UK market has seen the supply of around 19.37million jute bags in the last two years. That means that this fully sustainable alternative has reduced demand for single use plastic bags by 6.04billion, with all the environmental benefits which go with that.

“With the bags having a lifespan of up to four years there is the potential for these same jute bags to also save another 6.04billion plastic bags over the next two years.”

The new 5p charge for single use plastic bags was introduced in England on October 5 2015 to help reduce litter and protect wildlife. Similar bag taxes were introduced in Scotland in 2014, Northern Ireland in 2013 and Wales in 2011.

The company’s jute bag production rose from 5.5million bags per year before the English plastic bag tax was introduced in 2015 to help reduce litter and protect wildlife, to 8.5million in the year of the bag tax and 7million a year since.

Jutexpo has supplied 15,500,000 jute bags in the last two years at a rate of up to one bag every four seconds.

More than 7billion plastic bags were handed out by seven main supermarkets in the year before the charge, but this figure plummeted to slightly more than 500million in the first six months after the charge was introduced, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).