THE CAMPAIGN THAT CHANGED BRITAIN

February 2008

■ Daily Mail launches s its Banish the Bags campaign, with the heartbreaking picture e of an endangered turtle trapped and tangled in plastic

■ Ministers resist action for years, claiming a charge for plastic bags would be unpopular with customers and retailer rs, before launching a consultation in 2013

October 2015

■ Five-pence char rge on carrier bags is finally introduced by Chancellor George Osborne, amid growing anger over plastic pollution in the ocean s

April 2018

■ A UK Plastics Pact sees 42 supermarkets and food and drink giants, including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer, set a deadline of 2025 to eliminate non-reusable plastic, including black ready meal trays and food pouches

■ The Daily Mail continues its call to Turn the Tide on Plastic, highlighting the blight of pollution ■ This newspaper's Great Plastic Pick Up sees a 12,000-strong army of volunteers remove tons of plastic litter from streets, beaches and green spaces across the country

■ The event is backed by Sir David Attenborough (above) and Prime Minister Theresa May

■ Plastic microbeads are banned from cosmetics, such as shower gel, toothpaste and facial scrubs

■ The ban was first announced in September 2016, just nine days after the start of the Mail's Ban the Beads Now campaign (below)

■ Plastic bag charge leads to an 86 per cent fall in usage

■ The 7.6 billion bags handed out annually by the big supermarkets in 2015 has fallen to 1.1 billion ■ Environment Secretary Michael Gove says the Mail's 'tireless campaigning' has been 'crucial to the success' of the charge in driving down plastic bag use

July 2020

■ The average person now uses four carrier bags a year from the major supermarkets - down from 140 bags a year in 2014