![]() ![]() About 34% of dead leatherback sea turtle have ingested plastics.In 2015 about 730,000 tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were generated (including PS, PP, HDPE, PVC & LDPE) in the United States, but more than 87% of those items are never recycled, winding up in landfills and the ocean.It only takes about 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile. ![]() People in Denmark use an average of four plastic bags per year. Americans use an average of 365 plastic bags per person per year.Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture.This means more plastic in our oceans, more greenhouse gas emissions and more toxic air pollution, which exacerbates the climate crisis that often disproportionately affects communities of color. These oil giants are rapidly building petrochemical plants across the United States to turn fracked gas into plastic. The fossil fuel industry plans to increase plastic production by 40% over the next decade. It’s estimated that globally, people consume the equivalent of a credit card of plastic every week, 1 and it’s expected that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. Microplastics are also consumed by people through food and in the air. Fish eat thousands of tons of plastic a year, transferring it up the food chain to bigger fish and marine mammals. For hungry sea turtles, it's nearly impossible to distinguish between jellyfish and floating plastic shopping bags. Birds often mistake shredded plastic bags for food, filling their stomachs with toxic debris. Plastic bags start out as fossil fuels and end up as deadly waste in landfills and the ocean. ![]()
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