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Data
released by the United
States Environmental
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 one. “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”
- Jared Blumenfeld
(Director of San Francisco’s
Department of the
Environment)
Then…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 get
blown around to different
parts of our lands and to
our seas, lakes and rivers.
Bags find their way into the
sea via drains and sewage
pipes.
Plastic bags have been found
floating north of the Arctic
Circlenear Spitzbergen, and
as far south as the Falkland
Islands Plastic bags account
for over 10 percent of the
debris washed up on the U.S.
coastline. Plastic bags
photodegrade: Over time they
break down into smaller,
more toxic petro-polymers
which eventually contaminate
soils and waterways.
As a consequence microscopic
particles can enter the food
chain. The effect on
wildlife can be
catastrophic. Birds become
terminally entangled. Nearly
200 different species of sea
life including whales,
dolphins, seals and turtles
die due to plastic bags.
They die after ingesting
plastic bags which they
mistake for food.
So…What
do we do?
If we
use a cloth bag, we can save
6 bags a week. That’s 288
bags a year. That’s 22,176
bags in an average lifetime.
If just 1 out of 5 people in
our country did this, we
would save 1,330,560,000,000
bags over our lifetime.
On March 27th 2007, San
Francisco becomes the first
U.S. city to ban plastic
bags. Oakland and Boston are
considering a ban.
Plastic shopping bags are
made from polyethylene: a
thermoplastic made from oil.
Reducing plastic bags will
decrease foreign oil
dependency. China will save
37 million barrels of oil
each year due to their ban
of free plastic bags.
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