Banning or charging for plastic bags is helping stop them ending up on US shorelines, a study of the country's litter suggests.
Data from thousands of cleanups showed that areas which tried to reduce bag use saw them fall by at least 25% as a percentage of total litter collected, compared to areas that didn't try.
Bans or charging for bags worked better at state rather than town level, and had a bigger impact in places that had a bigger litter problem to begin with.
Despite the good news, the researchers cautioned that, overall, more plastic bags are being found across the US – they're just increasing less in those places trying to tackle the issue.
Plastic bag laws in the US vary considerably by state, county and town, which made it a useful place for researchers to test the effectiveness of bag policies.
