It is estimated that up to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year, more than one million per minute

British supermarkets give away approximately 10 billion plastic shopping bags annually, which are typically made from 60 million barrels of oil

On average, plastic bags travel 8,000 kms before coming to the UK

Even  with the recent drive to recycle plastic bags in the UK, only 0.5% are actually recycled, the rest either end up in landfill or are discarded

Biodegradable plastic bags were made from polymers engineered to break down faster under UV and water exposure.  However, they are still using petroleum based ingredients, which is simply unsustainable. Furthermore, such bags are rarely re-used.  Thereafter, they take over a year to break down

Newer,Cornstarch bags are fully bio-degradable. However, the energy required to manufacture and distribute the bags is similar to that required for plastic bags. Furthermore, they must then be differentiated from plastic bags as they must be composted and cannot be recycled

Plastic bags are not a viable alternative to the trillion plastic bags produced every year.  Millions of trees are cut down every year to produce paper, trees which would otherwise be soaking up Carbon Dioxide

Manufacturing a paper bag uses more than four times as much energy as the manufacture of a comparable plastic bag

Recycling of paper bags is not environmentally viable, it takes nearly 100 times more energy to recycle paper than plastic. Chemicals used in the recycling process include sodium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide, and sodium silicate

In any event, most paper bags end up in landfill, where they takes decades to decay and the chemicals used in their manufacture leach into the water table