Skip to content

Plastics footprint

Lets make sense of the figures we've explored so far by seeing what all this plastic is doing to the environment, animals, resources, and us.

Environment vs Plastic

Land vs Plastic

  • This is the equivalent of 1,094 Great Pyramids of Giza.
    • The Great Pyramid of Giza weighs 5,750,000 tons
  • Land-based sources contribute to 80 percent of ocean plastics.

Water vs Plastic

  • Plastic debris has been found in all major ocean basins
  • 8.8  million tons of plastic ends up in the world's oceans annually

    • Enough plastic waste to cover every foot of coastline around the world with five full trash bags of plastic.

    2015 study from UC Santa Barbara.
    https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/014985/ocean-plastic

  • 8.8 million tons of plastic waste equals:
  • 250 kg every second = 551 lbs/second

    • The equivalent to the weight of a hammerhead shark
  • 15,000 kg every minute = 3,300 lbs/minute

    • The equivalent to dumping the contents of more than one garbage truck into the ocean every minute
  • 900,000 kg every hour = 2,000,000 lbs/hour = 1,000 tons/hour

    • The equivalent weight of 200 elephants per hour.
    • The average male elephant weighs about 5 tons.
  • 21,600,000 kg every day = 47,619,848 lbs/day = 23,800 tons/day

    • The equivalent to the total weight of a cruise ship per day

Air vs Plastic

  • Greenhouse gas emissions result from production and after-use incineration.
    • The carbon footprint of plastic (LDPE or PET, poyethylene) is about 6 lbs Co2 per 1 lb of plastic
  • 2.5 Million tons of CO2 is produced yearly by water bottle manufacturing alone.

    • This is the equivalent to the yearly CO2 output from 650,000 people.

    https://timeforchange.org/plastic-bags-and-plastic-bottles-CO2-emissions

Animals vs Plastic

  • The plastic waste that is thrown away into seas every year kills more than 1,000,000 sea creatures.
  • Plastic waste harms and kills animals in various ways.
    • Entanglement
    • Ingestion
      • Documented for at least 233 marine species
      • Kills an estimated 1 million marine birds per year
      • Kills an estimated 100,000 marine animals each year.
    • Interaction
      • Collisions
      • Obstructions
      • Abrasions
  • The likelihood of coral becoming diseased increases from 4% to 89% after coming in contact with marine plastic.

Plastic ingestion

Microplastics have deadly effects on aquatic creatures like turtles and birds

  • Block digestive tracts
  • Diminish the urge to eat
  • Alter feeding behavior

All of this reduces growth and reproductive output.
In many cases, animals stuffed with plastic starve and die.

Every creature is in danger

The size of the ingested material is ultimately limited by the size of the organism

  • Microplastic particles in small organisms like mussels and shrimp
  • Plastic bags in larger fish and turtles
  • Objects like 9 meter/30 foot long rope in whales.

Chemical impacts

In addition to mechanical effects, microplastics have chemical impacts:

  • Free-floating pollutants that wash off the land and into our seas adhere to their surfaces, enter the waters, and its sea life inhabitants.
    • Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
    • Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
    • Heavy metals

Resources vs Plastic

The plastic industry is hard on our resources.

  • Oil and water are essential
  • Today 6% of the global oil production is used for plastics.

    • If the current strong growth of plastics usage continues as expected, by 2050, the plastics sector will account for:
      • 20% of total oil consumption
      • 15% of the global annual carbon budget

    Values from: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Plastics_Economy.pdf

  • The US alone processes about 100 billion plastic bags

    • This takes around 12 million barrels of oil.
  • An average American throws away about 10 bags a week. That’s 520 bags a year.

    • An average car consumes the equivalent of 14 bags per mile driven.
    • 520 bags is the fuel equivalent of 60 miles of driving
  • 50 billion bottles of water are bought each year

    • This takes 1.2 billion liters of oil
    • 72 billion liters of water
  • It takes twice as much water to produce a plastic water bottle as the amount of water contained in the bottle.

    • For every KG of plastic created, 180 liters of water is used.

Humans vs Plastic

  • The average person eats 70,000 microplastics each year.

    • That works out to about 100 bits of microplastic over the course of just one meal.

    Study published in: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/microplastics-in-food-eating-plastic-waste/

  • Out of 259 bottled waters tested, 93% contained some sort of microplastic particles.

    • An average of 10.4 plastic particles per litre of water.
      • Particles that were 100 microns (0.1 millimetres) or larger
    • An average of 314 particles per litre
      • Particles that were 100 microns (0.1 millimetres) or smaller

    Facts from: https://get-green-now.com/microplastics-health-guide/

  • Tiny plastic particles and fibers have been found in the stool of eight people who provided samples as part of a pilot study.

    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/news-plastics-microplastics-human-feces/

  • Plastic contains a wide range of compounds that leach into their surroundings and all creatures of the foodchain.

    • pigments
    • ultraviolet stabilizers
    • water repellents
    • flame retardants
      • Flame retardants may interfere with brain development in fetuses and children
    • stiffeners
      • bisphenol (BPA)
    • softeners called phthalates
  • Some of these chemicals are considered endocrine disruptors

    • Chemicals that interfere with normal hormone function, even contributing to weight gain

    • Other compounds that cling to plastics can cause cancer or birth defects.