As consumers in our modern world, we may like the convenience that plastic offers, but it's important to know that 99% of plastic comes from fossil fuels, making its production one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis. Single-use plastics like bottles, straws, bags, and utensils stick around long after you use them and break down into an unmanageable amount of microplastics.Â
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The average person ingests about a credit card's worth of plastic each week! Here are some other disturbing plastic facts:
- Though we think of it as disposable, plastic takes centuries to break down. That iced coffee in a plastic cup that you had this morning, tossed, and already forgot about— sadly, it's going to be around for hundreds of years.
- You say, “It's all good, I put it in the recycling bin,” but the unfortunate truth is that less than 30% of plastic is recyclable, and often only 1-3% is actually properly recycled. Most plastic products you see are made from virgin plastic, meaning produced as new, having never been used or processed before.
- Many of us have heard the infamous expression that by 2050 the amount of plastic in the oceans will outweigh the fish. It's a fact. Do you really want your plastic shampoo bottle to be floating out there alongside the dolphins?
