Spooky Facts About Plastic Pollution

Happy Halloween! Ghosts and ghouls are not the only spooky things to be aware of. Plastic pollution impacts us from the water we drink to the air we breathe. Plastic production is projected to triple globally by 2060, and with the current plastic pollution crisis we’re facing, immediate action must be taken by corporations all across the globe. Hold on tight, because here are some spooky facts about plastic pollution that everyone should know.

🎃 Only 9% of all plastic produced is recycled

“Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle” has been a slogan tied to the personal responsibility of consumers for decades now. Many people think that we can recycle our way out of a plastic pollution crisis, but that is unfortunately not the case. Only 9% of all plastic produced is recycled. About 85% of all plastic still ends up in landfills.

In the U.S. (the world’s biggest plastics polluter) only around 5% of over 50 million tons of plastic waste produced by households in 2021 was recycled.

🎃 73% of beach litter worldwide is plastic

According to a National Geographic report, 73% of beach litter worldwide is plastic. This includes filters from cigarette butts, bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, grocery bags, and polystyrene containers. 

🎃 The average person eats 70,000 microplastics each year

Microplastics are all around us. In the air that we breathe and in the water that we drink. What if we told you that it is also in the food that we eat?

Each year, the average person eats 70,000 microplastics which can have devastating impacts on our health.

🎃 Every minute of every day a truckload of plastic is dumped into the ocean

A monumental way that we consume microplastics is through contaminated fish that have consumed plastic through pollution of the sea. In a 2022 report, researchers in New Zealand and Australia detected microplastics in 75% of commercial fish. With the track that we are currently on, that percentage will rise and become more commonplace in many more port cities/nations.  

🎃 2 million plastic bags are used every minute worldwide

It’s time to break out the reusable tote bags because according to Ecowatch, between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year. This breaks down to 2 million plastic bags being used every minute! In New York City alone, people use 23 billion plastic bags each year.

Want to join our fight? Sign this petition to urge The Coca-Cola Company to put consumers first and move to secure commitments from its suppliers to end any use of toxic plastic additives like antimony that may be harmful to our health!