BREAK THE PLASTIC HABIT!

How YOUR family can make a big difference

Ten years ago this month, the Mail launched a trailblazing campaign to rid Britain of the scourge of plastic supermarket bags — prompted by a heartrending, shaming picture of an endangered turtle entangled in one, which was used on the front page.

The success of our Banish The Bags initiative has been nothing short of phenomenal.

Today, no one thinks twice about bringing their own bags to do their weekly shop. The Mail’s campaign, together with the 5p compulsory charge per bag we argued for, has resulted in an astonishing 85 per cent reduction in the number of bags being used. That’s more than seven billion fewer bags every year.

But it’s not enough. We have a moral imperative to do more, for our sake and that of our children. everyone’s seen shocking images such as the baby albatross on Blue Planet II which died after its stomach was pierced by a toothpick it had been fed by its mother.

The birds mistake plastic debris such as this, as well as lighters, toothbrushes and bottle caps floating in the ocean, for food. Some starve to death with their bellies full of plastic. We recall the tiny whale potentially poisoned by its mother’s milk after it ate plastic, too.

But most of us just don’t know where to start in order to tackle the crisis. When nearly every conceivable aspect of our lives is swathed in plastic of some sort, it is easy to feel completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem.

Many will wonder how a single individual’s actions can make such a seismic difference to a global challenge.

NOW, in a landmark series that could have just as big an impact as that front page a decade ago, we’re here to assure you that you really can make a difference — and your actions can help save our beautiful world and its animals.

Together, we can turn the tide on plastic, one small step at a time. The Mail has teamed up with husband and wife duo Chantal Plamondon and Jay Sinha, two of the world’s leading antiplastic campaigners, to show you how.

They have spent the past 15 years investigating the best ways to reduce your plastic use, and now they have put that knowledge in a groundbreaking new book, Life Without Plastic, which we are serialising all next week.

They were not only concerned about the environmental cost of plastic, but its potential impact on our health, too — from its effect on our hormones to the potential toxicity of chemicals from plastic getting into the food supply.

When they started their crusade, scientists were often sceptical. But the couple, both trained lawyers (Jay is also a biochemist), were ahead of their time. experts are now beginning to corroborate many of their fears — see the box below to learn how plastic may