According to The World Counts,
“We use 5 trillion plastic bags…per year! That’s 160,000 a second! And over 700 a year for every single person on the planet.”
160,000 plastic bags a second
This year, 5 trillion plastic bags will be consumed. That’s 160,000 a second! Put one after another they would go around the world 7 times every hour and cover an area twice the size of France.
Most bags are simply thrown out
Less than 1 percent are recycled. They are most often made from polyethylene that takes centuries to degrade. Each ton of recycled plastic bags saves the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil.
What happens to the plastic bags?
In total, we use 100 million tons of plastic every year. (Tweet this) Some 10 percent of this plastic end up in the oceans – and not without consequences…
The plastic soup
In the ocean, the plastic is broken down to tiny pieces. These pieces are eaten by fish and cannot be digested. Consequently the plastic builds up and enter into the food chain.
Hundreds of species are affected
Seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish eat the plastics. The death of one sperm whale found in California (USA) in 2008 was caused by 22.2 kilos of plastic that the whale had eaten. Check out the video on plastic bags and their way to the ‘Pacific garbage patch’.
Sources:
Worldwatch Institute: plastic bags
Wikipedia – plastic shopping bag