Facts About Plastic Waste
Single use plastic
Plastic bags and Styrofoam containers can take up to thousands of years to decompose leading to marine animal death and the contamination of soil and water.
The most common finds during international coastal clean-ups are cigarette butts, plastic beverage bottles, plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, plastic grocery bags, plastic lids, straws and stirrers, glass beverage bottles, other kinds of plastic bags, and foam take-away containers.
There were 1.9 million grocery bags and other plastic bags collected in the 2018 International Coastal Cleanup.
Just too much of it
The UK produces more than 100 million tonnes of waste every year.
In less than two hours, waste produced in the UK would fill the Albert Hall in London!
12 million tonnes of plastic are poured into the ocean every year.
Plastics consistently make up 80% of all marine debris studied.
And more About Single Use Plastic!
100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually.
Approx 5,000 items of marine plastic pollution have been found per mile of beach in the UK.
Less than a third of all plastic in the UK is recycled.
Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the last 15 years.
Production increased exponentially, from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons by 2015.
The way forward
The process of Afforestation (creating new forests where there were none) creates a carbon sink. This draws in and holds on to carbon and distributes it into the soil.
The concept of circular economy looks beyond societies’ current take-make-dispose model to create a more restorative economy which designs out waste, keeps products and materials in use for as long as possible and regenerates natural systems.
Sustainable consumption and production is about doing more and better with less. It is also about decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, increasing resource efficiency and promoting sustainable lifestyles.
What we can do to help
If everyone plays a small part in the big clean up process, and companies make changes in the way they process and package products, then real change can happen quickly. Our PalBand product helps you get a step closer to a true reduction in single plastic use which has a much wider bearing on the whole ecosystem. Our standard PalBand product can be fine tuned to suit your specific requirements.