Do the Plastic Bag Maths

According to government figures, supermarkets gave out over 8 billion single-use carrier bags across the UK in 2013. That is nearly 130 bags per person. High Town ward has 9046 residents, according to 2011 Census data [PDF]. Let's assume that people in High Town use as many bags as government figures suggest, and we multiply these bags by the number of people we live in the ward, we can calculate how many plastic bags are used by local residents per year: 

130 x 9046 = 1,175,980

Yes, that's 
ONE MILLION ONE HUNDRED AND SEVETY FIVE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PLASTIC BAGS PER YEAR IN HIGH TOWN ALONE. 
Dig this.

If we all paid 5p each time we got one of these bags, this would add up to:

 1,175,980 x £0.05 = £58,799.00 

A stately sum. A lot of money, where before there was simply the convenience of shopping on a whim, unprepared, unplanned - without taking our own bags. If we all paid only 5 for each 'convenience bag', we'd end up with a lot of money that cold go into environmental projects. 

• But where does the money go? We're still doing research on this. There will be a blog post coming on soon. In the meantime, let me say that what we have researched so far is very vague. 
  
  

Hang on, but we're hoping to cut the number of plastic bags, not keep on using them. So if we managed to cut our annual total in High Town to, say, 21 per year (which is the reduction Ireland achieved in 2002), we'd end up with: 

21 x 9046 x £0.05 = £9498.30. 
Per year. 

• What do you think could be funded with that, if we could re-invest this into High Town? 
  
• Let us know what you think.