The following facts are taken from various sources and highlight the massive usage of plastic and the unbelievable environmental impact of its use. The following facts are provided for informational purposes only to bring awareness to the issues at hand. Sources of each fact are also stated in brackets after the fact to allow you to undertake further investigation.
* First sandwich plastic bag introduced in 1957, department stores started broader bag use in the late 1970's and supermarkets by the 1980's (Seattle Post Intelligencer)
* Only 0.6% of all plastic bags are recycled thus leading to massive environmental issues (Worldwatch Institute 2004 report).
* Over 1m birds and sea creatures die each year from entanglement or consumption of plastic. Plastic bags are not the only culprit but also plastic bottles, caps, and other containers discarded (IWMA).
* Over 86% of all ocean waste collected is plastic (IWMA).
* Studies on 600 fulmar birds found 95% of them had plastic bags in their stomachs (Save the North Sea Project)
* Plastic takes over 500 years to photodegrade (degrade via use of sunlight) into small plastic polymers. Biodegradable bags take 1 -4 months (IWMA).
* 2004 English scientists report microscopic plastic polymers now found in plankton (Science Magazine).
* California uses over 19 billion plastic bags per year, that over 552 bags per person, generating over 147,000 tonnes of waste - enough to stretch around the world 250 times (Cascadia Consulting - Canada).
* Worldwide between 500m - 1 trillion bags are used each year with China alone using over 3 billion bags each day (Natural Environment).
* Paper bags typically have 40-50% recycled content and while 58% of Americans prefer to use paper, over 80% still use plastic (IWMA)
* Plastic bags are promoted by major stores as they are the cheapest bag at between 1-4c /bag.
* Each year Clean-up Australian campaign collects over 500,000 plastic bags (Clean-Up Australia).
* Sept 2003 beach cleanups across the US netted over 354,000 plastic bags (Ocean Conservancy).
* Plastic Bag day in Westchester NY collected nealry 40,000 plastic bags (Mid Hudson News).
* Banning plastic bags in the UK would be the equivalent of removing 18,000 cars from the road (Natural Environment).
* Plastic bags are typically made from fossil fuels and the production process involves a heavy industrial process with byproducts such as heavy metals, chlorofluorocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, sulfur oxides and dust (Chemtec Publishing).
* Approximately 60 - 100m barrels of oil are used each year to make plastic bags (Natural Environment).
* US plastics industry and related industries employs around 2.2m workers and contributes over $400m annually to the economy (Society of Plastics Industry).
Government Action?
Governments around the world are hearing our voices and seeing the massive cleanup costs associated with these issues. Click here to review Government action worldwide.
So what's the Alternative to plastic?
TuckerBag reusable grocery bags offer an eco-friendly means of reducing plastic. By simply using one reusable grocery bag during any one year can reduce the use of plastic by around 1000 bags. Multiply that over the population and you can see the dramatic effect that such a simple lifestyle change can have on the environment.
Check out our TuckerBags grocery bags here.
