Britannica Sources used in this answer

How have plastic bag bans and fees affected the number of bags found during shoreline cleanups?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Ubiquitous plastics — plastic pollution A volunteer collecting plastic nurdles (pellets less than 0.2 inch [0.5 centimeter] in diameter) at Barreiras Beach, Corrubedo, Spain.

Research indicates that implementing bans or fees on single-use plastic bags is an effective strategy for reducing environmental litter. According to crowdsourced data from over 45,000 volunteer cleanups conducted between 2016 and 2023, areas that instituted such policies saw a 25 to 47 percent reduction in the number of plastic bags collected from the shorelines of beaches, lakes, and rivers.1

These measures contribute to broader efforts to mitigate plastic pollution, as they encourage consumers to adopt sustainable habits, such as bringing reusable bags from home or skipping bags altogether. By decreasing the volume of single-use plastics in circulation, these policies help limit the amount of waste that ultimately enters aquatic ecosystems, where it poses significant risks to wildlife through entanglement and ingestion.123