Humans are serial consumers. Consumption has become a regular part of everyday behavior for us since the dawn of modern life.

However, the planet Earth can hardly handle the resources that we take from her or the pollution we cause, which affects every segment of our lives from the food we eat to the air we desperately need.

However, despite our consumption and use of materials that can hardly be recycled on their own in nature, we fail to recycle the plastic bags we use.

According to The World Counts, which is an online site that counts the damage that mankind causes on Earth, some 5 billion plastic bags have been used in 2018 so far, and only 1 percent of them were recycled.

Every year, 100 million tons of plastic is used worldwide. Of this, 10 percent turns into waste products that go into the ocean.

To restrict the use of plastic and as a part of the Zero Waste Project initiated by first lady Emine Erdoğan, plastic bags in Turkey will not be free of charge anymore, meaning customers cannot use as many plastic bags as they wish. Sellers will be obliged to sell plastic bags for TL 0.25 (approximately $0.05 cents), and they will be fined if they give bags for free to customers.