Plastic Statistics

Plastic isn't that great. The current estimate of the amount of plastic garbage in the ocean is 5.25 trillion pieces. Approximately four billion plastic microfibers per square kilometer litter the deep water, while 269,000 tons of same substance float on the top. (1) Approximately 500 billion single-use plastic bags are used annually by shoppers worldwide. This amounts to around one million bags per minute worldwide, or 150 bags annually for each individual on the planet. Additionally, the number is growing.                  They would make 4,200 round trips around the world if you accompanied them all the time. These are among the 100,000 marine animals that perish each year as a result of plastic entanglement. Additionally, plastic kills about a million seabirds. Because plastic bags take so long to break down, many animals can be killed by them. When an animal dies from the bag, it will degrade and be freed; another animal may unintentionally become a victim and consume the bag again. Plastic bags choked drains, making the 1988 and 1998 floods in Bangladesh worse. Plastic bags are currently prohibited by law. In just one year, Ireland cut the use of plastic bags by 90% after enacting a 15c fee on them. It's 22 cents currently. Plastic bags are the most common man-made object that sailors observe in our water. Every square mile of ocean is thought to contain 46,000 bits of plastic. Plastic accumulates in five ocean gyres worldwide as a result of current circulation. Our species feeds in these gyres, which are home to millions of plastic fragments. The time it takes for a plastic bag to disintegrate might range from 20 to 1000 years. I mean disintegrate as they disintegrate into smaller parts. They do not decompose, and those that do produce hazardous compounds and polymers. Recycling one tonne of plastic bags costs US$4,000, but the result is a product that may sell for US$32 on the commodities market. Since recycling is not feasible, we must put an end to them. 60 shopping bags can be accumulated in just four family shopping excursions. Every day, between 13,000 and 15,000 pieces of plastic are discarded into the ocean worldwide. 6.4 million tonnes are discarded into the ocean annually. This is equivalent to 3,200 kilometers of garbage-filled trucks. Plastic consumption is affecting at least two-thirds of the world's fish stocks. The issue of ocean acidification is getting worse. 200 regions have been designated as "dead zones" by scientists, meaning that no living things may now develop there. In Australia     3.6 billion of the 6.9 billion plastic bags used annually in Australia are shopping bags. 6.9 billion plastic bags would make 42.5 full circumnavigations of the globe if they were tied end to end. Every year, 36,700 tonnes of plastic bags are dumped into our trash by Australians. That is equivalent to 230,000 bags each hour, or 4,000 bags per minute. Ten percent of Australians recycle their plastic bags.      Cleaning up plastic bag litter costs the Australian government more than $4 million annually. There would be a 253 million bag reduction annually if every Australian family used one fewer plastic bag each week. In Australia, less than 1% of plastic bags are recycled. Imagine a piece of plastic that is one meter wide. According to a reasonable estimate, 40 kilometers of this plastic are produced daily for a single brand of toilet paper packaging. You may triple the length (120 kilometers) for bread. Bottled Water Story Safe drinking water is inaccessible to over a billion people worldwide. Despite having access to high-quality tap water, the majority of nations that purchase bottled water:           Over half a billion dollars is spent annually on bottled water by Australians. In 2009–10, Australia produced 582.9 million liters of bottled water. A liter of bottled water can produce and transport hundreds of times more greenhouse gasses than a liter of tap water. A liter of bottled water is frequently more costly than a liter of gasoline. Only 36% of PET plastic drink bottles are recycled in Australia. These calculations indicate that 373 million of the 582.9 million liters of bottled water produced in 2009–10 will be wasted, assuming that the water is in liter bottles. 74% of plastic bottles are recycled in South Australia, where container deposit laws are in place. According to a national Newspoll conducted in 2007 on behalf of Clean Up Australia, 82% of respondents are in favor of a 10c CDL program on bottles. The yearly consumption of bottled water in Australia contributes to about 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of 13,000 cars. In 2009–10, about 15,253.79 tons of PET were utilized to package bottled water. Approximately three tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced during the production of one tonne of PET. Thus, ignoring the substantial amounts of CO2 produced during the shipping and refrigeration of bottled water, bottling water in Australia produced more than 45.7 thousand tonnes of CO2 in 2009–10. Apart from the energy required for refrigeration and shipping, over 52.5 million liters of oil were needed in 2009–10 to make the PET used to package bottled water in Australia. Filling the bottles, transporting them by truck, train, ship, or air, refrigerating them, and recovering, recycling, or discarding the empty bottles all require more energy. According to the Pacific Institute, using bottled water can have an overall energy cost equal to filling a plastic container a quarter of the way with oil. Therefore, in 2009–10, Australia consumed more than 145.7 million liters of oil for the production, delivery, refrigeration, and recycling/disposal of bottled water.