HDPE

After the ban went into effect, in a six-month period, those stores sold 66 million high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, bags and 45 million recycled paper bags.

But they can sell you a heftier sack made of high-density polyethylene, or HDPE.

Jan Dell, a chemical engineer and founder of the anti-plastic pollution organization The Last Beach Cleanup, noted that many cleaning products are housed in PET or HDPE, two types of plastic with relatively high recycling rates.

The most recyclable plastics are PET, found in drinks bottles and fruit punnets, and HDPE, in milk bottles and cereal box liners; so if you can’t avoid it, go for these, then reuse or recycle what you can.

It's probably because ultraviolet light, which can penetrate clear glass bottles and HDPE, degrades vitamins A and D and riboflavin.