Jul 21, 2016

Plastic Bag Facts


There are a lot of scary things about plastic bags. Unfortunately the scariest part are how many we use and the negative effects of them. So if you need some more motivation to #skipthebag here it is!

Usage

  • 1 trillion bags are used worldwide annually. That is 1,000,000,000,000 bags each year. Thats over 31,000 per second.1
  • The US uses roughly 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually.1
  • The average American family uses 1,500 plastic bags a year.2

Recycling

  • 14% of of plastic packaging is recycled.2
  • No more than 5 percent of plastic grocery bags were recycled across the country in 2005, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.2

Pollution

  • California spends $428 Million each year to clean up plastic trash and debris from waterways.2
  • Between 5.3 and 14 million tons of plastic is put into the ocean per year. 9 million tons is the equivalent of 5 plastic bags full of plastic on every foot of coastline in the world.2
  • Plastic bags are consitently in the top 10 pieces of trash collected on beaches around the world.They estimate there have been over 10 million bags picked up during Ocean Conservatory beach clean up efforts.3
  • Plastic bags were the second most impactful item to marine wildlife (behind fishing gear) due to the tendency of animals such as sea turtles to mistake them for food. 3

1.Earth Policy Organization http://www.earth-policy.org/press_room/C68/plastic_bags_fact_sheet
2. Natural Resources Defense Council https://www.nrdc.org/
3. Ocean Convervancy http://www.oceanconservancy.org/

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4 comments:

  1. What an informative post! Thanks for sharing :)

    Blessings,
    Edye | Http://gracefulcoffee.wordpress.com

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  2. Nowadays we are taking tote bags to any store we go and trying to avoid plastic bags as much as possible. Thank you for sharing with us at #HomeMattersparty. We would love to have you again next week.

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    Replies
    1. Remembering to bring your bag is most of the battle!

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  3. Great info! I have been using the little bags that fold into a square and can easily be stored in my purse. WAY easier to remember that way. And I love paper bags for reusing for sewing patterns. Thanks for linking up at #SustainableSundays

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