Plastic Pollution Facts:
The information below has been proven to be an accurate picture of the magnitude of the problems we are facing!
Currently the Pacific Garbage Patch located in the North Pacific Gyre is twice the size of Texas. An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it plastic is dumped in the world's oceans every year. The worldwide fishing industry dumps an estimated 150,000 tons of plastic into the ocean each year, including packaging, plastic nets, lines, and buoys. Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year, but recycle only about 5% of it. The average person uses an average of 200 pounds of plastic each year. Every year, Americans throw away enough paper and plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times. Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Airports and airlines recycle less than 20 percent of the 425,000 tons of passenger-related waste they produce each year. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, an extra million tons of waste is generated each week. Nearly every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. There is 6x more plastic particles in the ocean than phytoplankton. The plastic is easily mistaken for plankton, causing dehydration, starvation and death of birds, fish and mammals. In addition, as the plastic particles circulate through the oceans, they act as magnets for toxic chemicals that work their way up the food chain right onto our dinner plates. Upwards of 1 million seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic. |
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