April 2014 - Big Fat Bags

40 year old reminder of a ‘throwaway culture’

April 8, 2014

1970s yoghurt pot washed up on UK beach An example of a plastic item we all use has resurfaced forty years after it was first purchased. Faded and cracked but still largely intact, this yoghurt pot dating back to the 1970s … Continued

Only 14% of plastic water bottles are recycled

www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/21/watershed-recycled-bottle-art-debuts-at/
The Pacific Regional Environment Program has reported the amount of petroleum used to make a single plastic bag would drive a car about 115 metres.

It would take only 14 plastic bags to drive one mile! www.sprep.org/factsheets/pdfs/plasticbags.pdf
Even when an animal dies and decays after ingesting a bag, the plastic re-enters the environment, posing a continuous threat to wildlife

www.worldwatch.org/node/5565
Scientists estimate that every square mile of ocean contains about 46,000 pieces of floating plastic

www.sprep.org/factsheets/pdfs/plasticbags.pdf
It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the amount of plastic bags the US uses per year

Made from petroleum products and natural gas, plastic bags utilize non-renewable resources, ultimately helping to drive up fuel prices.
The average reusable bag has the lifespan of over seven hundred disposable plastic bags

Over a lifetime, use of reusable bags by just one person would save over 22,000 plastic bags. Isn’t that even better incentive?
A plastic bag can take between 400 to 1,000 years to break down in the environment

Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the non-profit Center for Marine Conservation.
A person uses a plastic carrier bag on average for only 12 minutes

Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over
one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
Nearly 90% of the debris in our oceans is plastic

The World Wide Fund for Nature has estimated that over 100,000 whales, seals, and turtles die every year as a result of eating or being trapped by plastic bags.

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Monthly Archives: April 2014

Only 14% of plastic water bottles are recycled

The Pacific Regional Environment Program has reported the amount of petroleum used to make a single plastic bag would drive a car about 115 metres.

Even when an animal dies and decays after ingesting a bag, the plastic re-enters the environment, posing a continuous threat to wildlife

Scientists estimate that every square mile of ocean contains about 46,000 pieces of floating plastic

It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the amount of plastic bags the US uses per year

The average reusable bag has the lifespan of over seven hundred disposable plastic bags

A plastic bag can take between 400 to 1,000 years to break down in the environment

A person uses a plastic carrier bag on average for only 12 minutes

Nearly 90% of the debris in our oceans is plastic