- Data released by the US Environment Protection Agency shows that somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
- Less than 1% of bags are recycled. It cost more to recycle a bag than to produce a new 1.
- "There's harsh economics behind bag recycling: It costs $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32"
- Where do they go?
- A study in 1975, showed oceangoing vessels together dumped 8 million pounds of plastic annually. The real reason that the world's landfills weren't overflowing with plastic was because most of it ended up in an ocean-fill.
- Bags find their way into the sea via drains and sewage pipes.
- Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen, and as far south as the Falkland Islands.
- Plastic bags account for over 10% of the debris washed up on the US coastline.
- Over time they break down into smaller, more toxic petro-polymers
- which eventually contaminate soils and waterways
- As a consequene microscopic particles can enter the food chain
- The effect on wildlife can be catastrophic
- Birds become terminally entandled
- Nearly 200 different species of sea life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die dua to plastic bags
- They die after ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for food.
- What do we do?
- If we use a cloth bag, we can save 6 bags a week
- That's 24 bags a month
- That's 288 bags a year
- That's 22,176 bags in an average life time
- If just 1 out of 5 people in our country did this we would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags over our life time
- Bangladesh has banned plastic bags
- China has banned free plastic bags
- Ireland took the lead in Europe, taxing plastic bags in 2002 and have now reduced plastic bag consumption by 90%
- In 2005 Rwanda banned plastic bags
- Isae , Canda, esteda, otsa a, rael, Canada, western India, Botswana,
- Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, and
- Sing paore have also banned or are movin have also banned or are moving
- toward banning the plastic bag
- On March 27th 2007 San On March 27th 2007, San
- Francisco becomes first U.S. city
- to ban plastic bags
- Oakland and Boston are
- consid i berng a ban
- Plastic shopping bags are
- made from polyethylene: made from polyethylene: polyethylene:
- a thermoplastic made from oil
- Reducing plastic bags will decrease
- fiildd foreign oil dependency
- China will save will save 37 million barrels of 37 million barrels of
- oil h d t th i b f il eac h year due to their ban o f
- free p g lastic bags