Waste Free Weekend: Face the Facts

In previous Waste-Free Weekend blog posts, I have challenged you to take a Plastics Audit of your daily routine, Live Life a Little Less Plastic and support companies who work to reduce plastics.

This weekend, I challenge you to simple face the facts of plastics, and share these staggering numbers with your loved ones.

1. Since the 1950s, around 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide.
2. 50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away.
3. We currently recover only 5% of the plastics we produce.
4. It takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade.
5. Virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form
6. Billions of pounds of plastic make up about 40 percent of the world's ocean surfaces.
7. 80 percent of pollution enters the ocean from the land.
8. One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.
9. In some parts of the world, using plastic is already illegal.
10. Worldwide, about 2 million plastic bags are used every minute.
11. 90% of plastic polluting our oceans is carried by just 10 rivers.
12. The average person eats 70,000 microplastics each year.
13. Some of these compounds found in plastic have been found to alter hormones or have other potential human health effects.
14. Over the past 50 years, world plastic production has doubled.

As we make a shift to prioritize our planet, we find that many big companies simply do not care and continue to put profit over planet with little regard to the future consequences. Pay attention to these top plastic polluters, deny their products and demand a change. Our planet is not at the mercy of their continued profit margins.