In Scotland, some 120,000 tonnes of the stuff is produced from households each year.
Most of it ends up in landfill, on our shores and beaches, and even in seafood and water we drink.
A growing awareness of the environmental impact and harm of plastic has producing a number of campaigns to try and tackle the issue in recent years, such as the introduction of the 5p carrier bag charge.
Now Zero Waste Scotland launching a £1million funding drive seeking innovative new ideas to reduce plastic and packaging waste.
The publicly-funded body is appealing for businesses to share their plans to help cut single-use packaging in Scotland.
Warren McIntyre, of Zero Waste Scotland, said that the campaign addressed the increasing concern raised by shoppers about plastic which often can't be recycled.
Locavore, a new "super" market in the southside of Glasgow, has already benefitted from £100,000 funding from Zero Waste Scotland.
The shop, located on Victoria Road, offers a range of "fill your own" plastic-free shopping which can be collected by customers with the aim of providing a sustainable alternative to mainstream supermarkets.
Reuben Chesters, Locavore's managing director said that the store offers a "wide range of food, household products and more that can be refilled in store."
This includes herbs, pulses, nuts, grains, oil and vinegar, all types of household cleaning products, as well as milk for sale in refillable glass bottles.
He said: "Customers love these options, as they’re able to come in and pick up a variety of products and foods without bringing home a pile of useless packaging that would simply have to be binned, or possibly recycled."
He urged other businesses to look into ways in which they can follow suit.
Warren McIntyre, Resource Efficiency Programme Manager for Zero Waste Scotland, said that it had provided advice and funding to help the store introduce new packaging-free options for customers and working with the company helped flag up areas where the store could cut packaging.
He said: "Shoppers are increasingly concerned about single-use packaging which is often not, or can’t be, recycled.
"While packaging has a role to play in ensuring food and other products reach consumers in good condition, businesses such as Locavore show that it can be reduced – and that’s extremely popular with shoppers.
"The best way for businesses to take action then is to help reduce the amount of packaging we’re all using."
Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Roseanna Cunningham said it was "fantastic" to see how customers could come back "again and again for essential items, thanks to the use of refillable containers".
She added: "It’s ideas like this that are at the heart of the Scottish Government’s Making Things Last Strategy, which looks to develop our circular economy and protect our environment by keeping products in use as much as possible.".
Recent strides have already been taken to help reduce Scotland's use of plastic, with the Scottish Government announcing earlier this year for it's intention to ban all throwaway plastic by 2030.
The Final Straw campaign, launched by SNP's Kate Forbes, aims to ban the use of plastic straws, with a number of businesses and retailers, such as the BBC and Asda, announcing plans to completely scrap their use.
The Scottish Parliament has also announced its intention to ban the sale and manufacture of plastic-stemmed cotton buds in a bid to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution.
Similarly, it also wants to introduce legislation to ban the sale and manufacture of type of microplastic called microbeads: tiny beads in products such as toothpaste and shower gel that end up polluting seas because they are too small for water treatment plants to filter.
Zero Waste Scotland said it was inviting expressions of interest from businesses that have a "strong, workable idea for reducing single-use packaging" in either dealings with other businesses or direct with customers, and could benefit from advice or funding to take it forward.
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