The billions upon billions of items of plastic waste choking our oceans, lakes, and rivers and piling up on land is more than unsightly and harmful to plants and wildlife.
The following 10 facts shed light on how plastic is proving dangerous to our planet, health, and wildlife.
FACT #1: More than 480 billion plastic bottles were sold worldwide in 2016. That is up from about 300 billion only a decade ago.
FACT #2: About one trillion single-use plastic bags are used annually across the globe. That’s nearly 2 million every minute.
FACT #3: More than half a million plastic straws are used every day around the world.
FACT #4:Over half of the world’s plastic thrown out in 2015 was plastic packaging. That’s over 141 million metric tons.
FACT #5: Takeout orders account for around 269.000 ?US tons of plastic waste that has entered the oceans.
FACT #6: The amount of bubble wrap that is produced annually is enough to wrap around the Equator ten times.
FACT #7: The world uses 500 billion plastic cups every year.
FACT #8: 16 billion disposable coffee cups are used each year. These are coated with plastic to laminate the inside and use plastic lids.
FACT #9: The world produces more than 14 million US tons of polystyrene (plastic foam) each year. Americans alone throw away around 25 billion Styrofoam cups every year.
FACT #10: Around the world, people litter more than 4.5 trillion cigarette butts every year.
Source: www.earthday.org
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