Fan-plastic!!!

I just did my speech today about the fantastic plastic and I feel like a lot of this was new information to people. Here are just some of the highlights of my speech.

• Plastic is made from OIL
• 500 billion plastic bags are made each year, worldwide
• The US alone uses 12 million barrels of oil on plastic bags
• Only 1% of all that plastic gets recycled, the rest go to landfills or the stomachs of baby seals.
• It takes roughly 1000 years for a water bottle to decompose
• BPA, a widely used chemical in strengthening plastic baby bottles and cans, can cause cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm.
• Plastic absorbs and releases harmful pollutants like PCBs and Pesticide.
• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch floats a few miles off the coast of Hawaii and is roughly twice the size of Texas and weighs approximately 3 million tons. This “garbage island” is composed of garbage from Russia, India, China, Japan, and the US. The plastic to zooplankton ratio there is 6:1. 90% of Albatross carcasses found contained plastic in their stomachs.

What are some ways to avoid using plastic?

• Use re-usable bags at your grocery store instead of plastic.
• Use a Brita filter or buy water by the gallons at filling stations
• Buy in bulk with less packaging
• Wrap your holiday gifts in newspaper and twine
• Recycle at home, at work, everywhere
• NEVER microwave plastic

Chew on that.