New data released today by environmental watchdog WRAP shows a rise in the number of single-use carrier bags used by supermarket customers across the UK during 2011 for the second year running.

Nonwovens have been particularly successful as more durable replacements for plastic bags – as so called ‘Bags for Life’ – contributing to a 48% reduction in single-use plastic bags between 2006 and 2009.

Some 870 million disposable plastic bags were used each month in 2006 and in 2009 the figure fell to 450 million – a monthly saving of 4,740 tonnes of waste going to landfill.

In 2011, however, a total of eight billion ‘thin-gauge’ bags were issued in the UK, representsing a 5.4% rise compared with 2010.