Shoppers in England will take home six billion fewer plastic bags this year thanks to the introduction of the 5p charge.

在推出征收5便士的政策之后，英国消费者今年使用的塑料袋大约减少了60亿只。

The first official Government figures show the charge has cut use of the environmentally-damaging bags by around 85 per cent.

据英国政府第一次的统计数据显示，收费使得危害环境的塑料袋用量减少了大约85%。

More than seven billion single-use plastic bags were handed out by the main retailers¹ in 2014.

在2014年，英国的零售商们发行了70多亿只一次性塑料袋。

But in the six months that followed the introduction of the charge in England in October, that figure dropped to just half a billion.

不过，在推出一次性塑料袋征收5便士政策后的前六个月，这一数字一下子减少了大约5亿只。

That means six billion fewer bags will be taken home by shoppers over the course of the first year.

如果保持第一年的这一趋势，那就意味着今年塑料袋的使用量将减少60亿只。

Environment Ministers said this was the equivalent to the weight of roughly 300 blue whales, 300,000 sea turtles or three million pelicans².

环境部长表示，这相当于大约300头蓝鲸的重量，也相当于30万只海龟或者300万只鹈鹕的重量。

The 5p charge has also resulted in donations of more than 29 million pound from retailers towards good causes, including charities and community groups.

收取5便士这一政策也导致零售商将收取的超过2900万英镑用于包括慈善机构和社会团体的公益事业。

It shows small actions can make the biggest difference, but we must not be complacent³ as there is always more we can all do to reduce waste and recycle what we use.

这显示出了小举措却能带来巨大的改变，不过我们也不可骄傲自满，因为在减少浪费和回收利用方面，我们能做的还远远不止这些。