UK households collectively throw away almost 100 billion pieces of plastic every year, according to a recent survey. The Big Plastic Count saw nearly 100,000 households across the country count every piece of disposable packaging they used over the course of a week in May.
The project was launched by environmental charities Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic. Participating homes, representing around a quarter of a million people, threw away an average of 66 pieces of packaging every week – 83% of which was food and drinks packaging.
If scaled up across every home in the UK, it suggests Britons are chucking out 96.6 billion pieces of disposable plastic a year, the two charities said. The most common item was fruit and veg packaging, the survey found, followed by snack bags, packets and wrappers.
