Plastic bags per year in the world-500 billion to 1 trillion.
Every year in Washington state, which has about 2% of the US population, people throw away about 270,000 tons of plastic bags and wrappings. Multiply that times 50, and you arrive at an estimate for the entire United States: 13.5 million tons of plastic bags and wrappings discarded every year.
That's nearly 5 percent of all garbage going to landfills and incinerators in the state, according to Gretchen Newman, recycling coordinator for the state Department of Ecology.
In Washington state, despite the lightness of their weight, plastic bags and wrappings made up 3 percent of the volume of all litter on state roads and in state and county parks in 2000, the last year tracked by the state, according to an Ecology report. That's 283 tons of bag litter statewide.
Plastic bags — introduced in 1977 — make up 90 percent of all grocery bags.
1 million-Number of plastic bags used worldwide every minute.
Plastic is a by-product of oil refining and accounts for 4% of the worlds total oil production.
The electricity used in the actual production and manufacturing of plastic bags comes from coal fire power plants, which, it is interesting to note, 50% of that electricity is generated from the burning of old tires (made from rubber which is essentially, plastic).
Annual cost to US retailers alone is estimated at $4 billion.
According to the WSJ, Target, the second-largest retailer in the U.S., purchases 1.8 billion bags a year.
An estimated 8 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in the US alone, putting an unnecessary burden on our diminishing landfill space and causing air pollution if incinerated.
Millions of plastic bags end up in the litter stream outside of landfills—estimates range from less than one to three percent of the bags.That's about 75,000 tons.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.
According to the BBC, only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled.
According to WashingtonPost.com, the percentage of plastic bags that are recycled is 1-3%. It’s also estimated that only 80% of the bags make it to the landfill.
According to the WorldWatch Institute, the percentage of plastic bags recycled is less than 1%, that is .006. As one can see, estimates vary, but none of the estimates published indicate a very high percentage of plastic bags are being recycled.
An alternative to starch-based resins are additives that allow the manufacturers to make PE, PS, PP, PET, and PVC totally biodegradable in landfills, where 94.8% of most plastics end up, according to the EPA.
The New York Times is delivered in oxo-biodegradable bags. Oxo-biodegradable plastic was chosen over hydro-biodegradable bags (food-based bags,) because hydro-biodegradable bags dissolve so quickly that they don't keep the newspaper dry.
Since oxo-biodegradable plastic (unlike the starch-based alternative) releases its carbon slowly, it produces high quality compost.
Berkeley accepts non-BPI certified polyethylene-based biodegradable bags, such as Ecosafe, according to BioCycle Magazine.
PAPER OR PLASTIC?
If plastic were to be replaced by other materials, trash weight would increase by 150%, packaging would weigh 300% more and energy consumed by the industry would increase by 100%.
The weight of 10 plastic grocery bags is equal to one standard-size paper bag. It costs one cent for a standard plastic grocery sack, whereas a paper bag costs four cents.
It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.
It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper.
Compared to paper grocery bags, plastic grocery bags consume 40 percent less energy, generate 80 percent less solid waste, produce 70 percent fewer atmospheric emissions, and release up to 94 percent fewer waterborne wastes.
In 1999, 14 million trees were cut to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by Americans that year alone.
Energy to recycle once in BTUs - Safeway Plastic Bags: 17 BTUs- Safeway Paper Bags: 1444 BTUs.
Forests store 86% of the planet's above-ground carbon and 73% of the planet's soil carbon.
SANITATION
Good sanitation prevents millions of deaths each year from bacterial infections bourne by unsanitary food and water. Disposable containers, plates, cups, and utensils are a method of insuring good sanitation of food, water, and beverages.
The energy required to produce one kilo of polyhydroxyalkanoate from plants was equivalent to the consumption of 2.65 kg of fossil fuel while the production of one kilo of polypropylene required only 1.54 kg of fossil fuel. (Petroleum based plastic versus food starch based plastic.)
How important is food and water sanitation? It was estimated in 2002 by the World Health Organization that around 700,000 Indians die each year from diarrhoea. The annual incidence of typhoid is estimated to be about 17 million cases worldwide.
Amongst the poor and especially in developing countries, diarrhoea is a major killer. In 1998, diarrhoea was estimated to have killed 2.2 million people, most of whom were under 5 years of age
SHOULD PLASTIC BE MADE OUT OF FOOD, AND HOW DOES GLOBAL WARMING IMPACT CROPS?
What we found is that, over the last several decades, yields of wheat, corn, and barley are consistently lowest in the warmest years.
Comparing yield figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization for the six most widely grown crops in the world -- wheat, rice, maize (corn), soybeans, barley and sorghum -- with average temperatures and precipitation, the researchers found that yields fell by 3-5 percent for every 1 degree F increase. They said that average global temperatures increased by about 0.7 degrees F during the study period.
Yields in the tropics will fall disastrously because temperatures there are already almost as high AS many crop plants can tolerate.
Everyone who uses disposable plastic products can contribute to improving this situation by making sure that when they use disposable plastic products, they are made with oxo-biodegradable plasic. All BioGreen Producs are made with oxo-biodegradable plastic.
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