Plastics Facts

Below are words and images that will hopefully make you feel that you can help.

The Curse Of The Carrier Bag

Run Time 11:50

More Facts

• Britain uses nearly 17bn bags a year, or 300 for every man, woman and child
• Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade-breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
• About four-fifths of all marine litter comes from land, swept by wind or washed by rain off highways and city streets, down streams and rivers, and out to sea. (Only 20% comes from boats, it's a common misplaced blame to assume it's all from boats)
• Nearly 90% of floating marine litter is plastic.
• Since the dawn of the plastic era it is estimate that 5% of all the world's post production plastic has entered the world's oceans. That is just over 100 million tons of plastic.
• In June 2006 United Nations Environmental Program report estimated that there are an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic debris floating on or near the surface of every square mile of ocean. However in the most concentrated area's this figure was reported to be at over 1 million pieces.
• Worldwide, at least 143 marine species are known to have become entangled in marine debris (including almost all of the world's species of sea turtles) and at least 177 marine species (including 95% of all the world's sea birds) have eaten plastic litter.
• Its estimated that over 1 million seabirds choke or get tangled in plastic debris every year, and about 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, other marine mammals and sea turtles suffer the same fate, although some scientists believe this figure to be much higher.
• UK beaches have on average 2000 pieces of litter for every kilometer.
• Plastic particles in the ocean have been nicknamed little toxic time bombs. Marine plastic works much like a sponge and collects other hydrophobic chemicals (these are chemicals that don't mix well with water) that have entered the marine environment through use and disposal over the years. The group name for these chemicals is POP's (persistent organic pollutants) chemicals that take decades to breakdown, such as chlordane, PCB, DDT, and DDE to name a few, but heavy metals such as mercury, zinc and lead are also known to attach themselves to marine plastic.
• The amount of petroleum used to make one plastic bag would drive a car about 115 metres.
• The world uses over 1.2 trillion plastic bags a year.
• That averages about 300 bags for each adult on the planet.
• Or another way at looking at it is we are using one million bags per minute. On average we use each plastic bag for approximately 12 minutes before disposing.
• It then can last in the environment for centuries.
• Not all litter is deliberate. 47% of wind borne litter escaping from landfills is plastic much of this is plastic bags.
• In the marine environment plastic bag litter is lethal, killing at least 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles every year. After plastic bags kill an animal, its body decomposes and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again.