/ Plastic bags are made of polyethylene.
/ Polyethylene is a petroleum product.
/ Production contributes to air pollution and energy consumption.
/ Four
to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year.
/ Americans use over 380 billion polyethylene bags per year.
/ Americans throw away approximately 100 billion polyethylene bags
per year.
/ It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down.
/ As polyethylene breaks down, toxic substances leach into the soil
and enter the food chain.
/ Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting
plastic bags.
/ Plastic bags are often mistaken as food by marine mammals. 100,000
marine mammals die yearly by eating plastic bags. These animals suffer
a painful death, the plastic wraps around their intestines or they
choke to death.
/ Plastic bag choke landfills.
/ Plastic bags are carried by the wind into forests, ponds, rivers,
and lakes.
/ The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that increase our dependency on foreign suppliers. Additionally, prospecting and drilling for these resources contributes to the destruction of fragile habitats and ecosystems around the world.
/ The energy needed to manufacture and transport disposable bags
eats up more resources and creates global warming emissions.
/ Approx. 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every year. That’s more than 1,200 bags per US resident, per year.
/ Approx. 100 billion of the 380 billion are plastic shopping bags. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.
/ Only
1 to 2% of plastic bags in the USA end up getting recycled.
/ The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that there are
46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean.
/ Even when they photo-degrade in landfill, the plastic from single-use
bags never goes away, and toxic particles can enter the food chain
when they are ingested by unsuspecting animals.
/ Greenpeace says that at least 267 marine species are known to have suffered from getting entangled in or ingesting marine debris. Nearly 90% of that debris is plastic.
