Plastic Pollution

Plastic is polluting the planet and choking our oceans. Nearly half of all plastic products produced are discarded after a single use. Only a tiny percentage of plastic waste is recycled or incinerated – the rest goes to landfill or pollutes the environment.

Global plastic production has increased much faster than the development of waste management systems. In many developing countries, there are little to no recycling facilities, and even in developed countries, our waste systems are often incapable of processing the scale of plastic waste.

Because it takes hundreds of years to break down, plastic leaks harmful microplastics into water systems, which find their way into our food chain.

To tackle the problem, we need better waste management systems, restrictions on plastic production, more responsible consumption and investment in sustainable alternatives.

If we don’t, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has warned that there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050.

Why should we care?

The average person eats approximately 5 grams of microplastics every week. That’s the equivalent of eating a credit card. We don’t know all the health impacts of ingesting plastic, but we do know what a negative impact it’s having on animals and the planet.

Plastic has been found in the deepest reaches of the ocean and even in remote Arctic sea ice. It’s not the type of lasting legacy we want to leave on this Earth.

Facts and figures

300 million tonnes of plastic is produced every year, and only 9% of all plastic is recycled

1 million plastic bottles are sold per minute globally

The average American generates 105kg of plastic per year – that’s the size of a giant panda!

100 million marine animals die each year from plastic waste

1 in 2 marine turtles have eaten plastic

More than 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been made since the material was first introduced. That’s equivalent in weight to 1 billion elephants.