Help keep One Green Planet free and independent! Together we can ensure our platform remains a hub for empowering ideas committed to fighting for a sustainable, healthy, and compassionate world. Please support us in keeping our mission strong.
Plastic has become such a large part of everyday life that you probably don’t even notice how much of it you use everyday. We live in a society where practically everything is disposable and let’s be honest, the convenience of all these plastic goods is really nice. But despite how easy it may be to use a plastic cup and toss it in the trash (instead of having to clean a reusable one), the waste created by that cup does not simply just disappear.
Because we never really get to see all the plastic waste we generate, most people don’t understand what a huge mess we’re making of the planet. In the U.S. alone, 2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown out every hour! But what does all this plastic waste really look like? And where does it go? Given the huge amount of plastic we throw out everyday, you would think we’d all be drowning in it!
So if you’ve ever wondered where all this plastic goes and why it’s such a huge deal. Check out these photos to get an idea.
It is estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in every square mile of the ocean.
Plastic trash has a way of washing up far from where it started.
It can take plastic hundreds of years to break down, but when it does it releases toxic chemicals.
It also causes a whole lot of damage before it breaks down too …
To a Sea Turtle, plastic bags can look like jelly fish.
What is convenient for us, isn’t always convenient for the other animals we share the planet with.
If you’ve ever tasted a plastic bag … you know it’s not the ideal meal.
One man’s plastic trash is definitely not another animal’s treasure.
When animals eat plastic, it can damage their intestines.
About 80 percent of marine debris comes from land.
Globally, around 240,000 plastic bags are used every second!
Given the availability of reusable alternatives, it is up to us to remember who really suffers when we use plastic.
We share this planet, so let’s start acting like it!
What You Can Do!
The good news is, we can all make a difference by being mindful of our plastic consumption. If we use less plastic, less will end up in the ocean … or worse, in the mouths of animals. There is a reusable alternatives for nearly every single plastic item you use everyday. While helping to keep trash out of the environment is a great reason to opt for reusables over disposable – it can also save you some serious cash! If you replace all the disposable items you purchase for lunch everyday with reusable alternatives you can $371 a year!
To learn more about disposable plastic waste, check out this article. To find all the reusable products you could ever need to cut plastic out of your life, click here. Together, we can take action and #CrushPlastic once and for all for the sake of marine life – and importantly, us.
Let’s #CrushPlastic! Click the graphic below for more information.
Even if you recycle only a portion of what you put in your recycle bin is actually recycled. Recyclers learned years ago that the way to get the most stuff is to allow all plastic and metal in recycling programs. They then sort out a big chunk of the items and landfill them. For instance only #1 and #2 are readily recycled – so that chobani cup #7 you recycle ends up in the landfill – as the facility sorts that stuff out and trucks it there for you.
I have worked in recycling for years and people who work at the muni recycling facilities usually recycle very little themselves because they know that they will end up sorting it out later and landfilling it.
For items like appliances about 65% of the them by weight even when recycled still go to landfill.
I wrote some articles on the topic for Earth911 called "sortacycled"