Ten years of stunning landmarks
February 27, 2008: Mail launches Banish The Bags campaign, calling for a 5p levy on one-use plastic carriers in supermarkets. Within three months, Marks & Spencer introduces the charge. Others soon follow.
October 2011: Wales introduces 5p levy, resulting in 270million fewer bags per year.
April 2013: Northern Ireland follows suit, saving 1 0million bags a year. October 2014: Scotland is next, cutting annual bag use by 40million.
October 2015: 5p bag levy introduced in England with around 7billion fewer now used annually; £150million raised for good causes.
August 25, 2016: Mail launches Ban The Beads Now campaign highlighting the devastating effects on marine life of microbeads found in facial scrubs, toothpastes and shower gels. September: Government pledges bead ban.
February 7, 2017: Costa coffee introduces 25p discount for those who bring reusable cups.
September: JD Wetherspoon vows to ban straws (it uses 700million a year) at 900 pubs.
October 29: Blue Planet II airs on BBC1 with heartbreaking scenes of sealife poisoned by the plastic waste dumped in oceans.
November: Tesco, Coca-Cola, Iceland and the Co-op back bottle deposit scheme.
December: Aberporth – a former fishing community on the west coast of Wales – becomes Britain’s first plastic-free village.
December 4: Erik Solheim, head of the UN’s environmental programme, holds a copy of Daily Mail aloft at a global summit in Nairobi, showing 7,000 delegates our front page pledging to ‘Turn the Tide on Plastic’.
December 5: More than 100 nations sign pledge to eliminate plastic pollution from the oceans.
January 2018: Demand for milk in recyclable glass bottles is reported to be rocketing and, with it, the need for milkmen. Pret a Manger doubles its reusable cup discount to 50p.
January 9: A UK-wide ban comes into force on the manufacture of products containing microbeads. From July, products that contain microbeads may no longer be sold.
January 10: Marks & Spencer announces it will stop selling its £2 ‘cauliflower steak’ after complaints of excessive packaging.
January 10: BBC2 Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis asks co-leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas: ‘Is it not fair to say, Caroline, that the Daily Mail is the biggest friend of the environment at the moment?’ She replies: ‘They have done more to help the cause arguably than the Greens have.’
January 11: Theresa May announces a 25year ‘war’ on plastic waste with 5p bag levy extended to smaller retailers.
January 15: Supermarket Iceland says it will eliminate plastic packaging from own-brand products by 2023.
January 18: Evian pledges to use 100 per cent recycled bottles for mineral water by 2025.
January 19: Coca-Cola reveals it aims to collect and recycle all its packaging by 2030. January 25: Pizza Express bans plastic straws from its 4 0 restaurants.
January 31: Ryanair is the first airline to announce plans to go plastic-free.
February 1: Royal Caribbean International joins other operators to eliminate single-use plastics on their cruise ships.
February 5: Asda pledges to reduce single use plastic ‘wherever’ it can.
February 7: Eurostar pledges to reduce use of plastics by 50 per cent by 2020.
February 11: The Queen instructs staff to ditch straws, eat from china plates and drink from glass bottles.
February 13: BBC announces plans to eradicate all disposable cups and cutlery.
February 23: Environment Secretary Michael Gove bans plastic drinking straws.
February 26: Starbucks announces 5p per plastic cup levy at 35 London stores.
February 27: Boris Johnson bans single-use plastic at the Foreign Office.