PLASTICS IN BEDFORD Daylen Lavallee

PLASTICS IN BEDFORD

By Daylen Lavalee for Environmental Science Posted on December 13, 2019, 11:34 AM

 This is a photo of plastic washed up on a beach to show the amount of waste that pollutes our oceans.

INTRODUCTION

An estimated 13 billion plastic bottles are disposed of each year, Plastic Bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kills millions of sea creatures every year.

PLASTIC IS INDESTRUCTIBLE 

Plastic cannot break, every piece of plastic made still exists today.

One Trillion Single-Use Plastic Bags

Are used annually across the globe. That's nearly 2 million every minute

More than half a billion straws are used every day around the world

13 billion plastic bags are issued each year, an average of 300 per adult per year.

Since the 1950s, around 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide.

n estimated 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s — that’s equivalent to the weight of more than 800,000 Eiffel Towers.

And only 9% of it has been recycled.

RECYCLING

 Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the Earth four times. Americans throw away 35 billion plastic bottles every year. Only about 25% of the plastic produced in the U.S. is recycled. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy than burning it in an incinerator, By using reusable drink containers an average person can eliminate the need for 100 disposable bottles per year.

PLASTIC BAN AROUND THE GLOBE

In some parts of the world, using plastic is already illegal.

Kenya introduced one of the world’s toughest laws against plastic bags in 2017. Now, Kenyans who are caught producing, selling, or even using plastic bags will risk imprisonment of up to four years or fines of $40,000 (£31,000).

Other countries that have banned, partially banned, or taxed single-use plastic bags include China, France, Rwanda, and Italy.  

You can find out about other countries and cities that have brought in extraordinary plastic bans here.

YOU PROBABLY ATE MICROPLASTICS

The average person eats 70,000 microplastics each year.

That works out to about 100 bits of microplastic over the course of just one meal, according to a study published in Environmental Pollution.

A team of UK-based researchers put petri dishes with sticky surfaces next to dinner plates in three homes in the UK. After just 20 minutes, the dishes accumulated an average of 14 microplastics.

The average time that a plastic bag is used for is … 12 minutes.

Yep, that’s right — they’re used for an average of 12 minutes and then take up to a thousand years to decompose.

WAYS TO STOP PLASTIC POLLUTION

1. Reduce. Reduce your own plastic waste. ...
2. Reuse. Bring your own reusable shopping and produce bags to markets, and avoid using single-use plastic bags.
3. Refuse. Refuse straws: It's as simple as adding, “No straw, please” when requesting beverages at restaurants or cafes.
4. Remove. Pick up trash in your neighborhood and when visiting parks and beaches.
5. Recycle the plastics you use and no longer need.
6. Return single-use bags to grocery stores for them to recycle.
7. Rally. Does your city or state have bans on single-use plastics? Send a letter or call your local elected leaders, urging them to ban plastic bags and other single-use plastic items.
8. Share our Plastic Toolkit and Primer and plastic calculator with your friends.
9.  Vote for candidates committed to protecting and improving our environment