Your Green Review

Plastic bags consumed this year:

The next time you consider buying that 24 case of bottled water or accepting the plastic grocery bag instead of bringing a canvas tote, consider these statistics first:

Plastic Consumption:

• Plastic will not biodegrade-ever. Instead, plastic will photodegrade into smaller and smaller pieces over thousands of years. It will persist in the environment indefinitely, absorbing environmental contaminants like PCB’s and DDT, then contaminate water and soil supplies and enter into the food chain (think bio-magnification).
• Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink wrap Texas (Oberlin College)
• Producing 1 kilogram of PET plastic (most water bottles are made of PET plastics) requires 17.5 kilograms of water and results in air emissions of 40 grams of hydrocarbons, 25 grams of sulfur oxides, 18 grams of carbon monoxide, 20 grams of nitrogen oxides, and 2.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Much more water is consumed in making the bottles than will ever go into them. (The Green Guide)

• Americans consume 30 billion single-serving containers of bottled water a year (New York Times)
• Every hour, Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles (Clear Water Florida)
• 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to produce plastic watter bottles in the US per year. That much energy could power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year (USA Today)
• Producing a 16-oz. #1 PET bottle generates more than 100 times the toxic emissions to air and water than making the same size bottle out of glass (The Green Guide)
• 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year. That equals over 1 million plastic bags per minute (City of St. Louis Department of Streets)
• In the US, we use 380 billion plastic bags every year – more than one billion a day. (Better Bags Colorado)
• The production of plastic bags creates enough solid waste per year to fill the Empire State Building two and a half times MSNBC

Recycling Plastics

• If every American household recycled just one out of every ten HDPE (recycling code 2) bottles they used, we’d keep 200 million pounds of the plastic out of landfills every year (Oberlin College)
• In 2001 the recycling rate for all plastics in the waste stream – durable and non-durable goods as well as containers and packaging – was just 5.6 percent (Ohio Department of Recycling and Litter Prevention)
• Over 2.1 billion pounds of post-consumer plastic bottles were recycled during 2005, accounting for 24 percent (by weight) of all plastic bottles produced in the United States (American Chemistry Council)
• In 2002 some 14 billion water bottles were sold in the United States, 90 percent of which were thrown in the trash (The Green Guide)
• Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from virgin raw materials (EPA)
• Five 2-liter recycled PET bottles produce enough fiberfill to make a ski jacket; 36 recycled bottles can make 1 square yard of carpet (EPA)
• Recycling one plastic bottle powers a computer for 25 minutes (California State University)
• For every soft drink bottle you recycle, you save enough energy to run a television set for an hour and a half (Litter Cleanup)
• Recycling a one-gallon plastic milk jug will save enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for 11 hours (MSNBC)
• Recycling a ton of PET saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
• Half of all polyester carpet manufactured in the US is made from recycled soda bottles. (Clear Water Florida)
• Nearly 1.8 tons of oil are saved for every ton of recycled polythene produced. (wasteonline.org.uk)
• More than 20,000 communities, 63 percent of the nation’s total, are estimated to have access to a community recycling program (curbside and drop-off) that collects plastics (American Chemistry Council)

What Can I do?

• Reduce-avoid using single use items such as disposable cups, dinnerware and bottled water; try to buy concentrates, bulk foods and loose fruits and veggies to reduce packaging waste; buy post consumer waste products where possible. Remember, it takes approximately 2/3 of the energy to a new product made from recycled materials than to use virgin materials!
• Reuse-better than recycling, reusing consumes no additional energy or resources. Get some extra life out of plastic bags before taking them to the grocery for recycling; click here for some creative ways to extend the life of common plastic containers; NOTE: Reusing disposable water bottles may leach dangerous chemicals and should be avoided if possible.
• Recycle-Check out YGR’s Recycling Guide to find out how to recycle responsibly in your community!