[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDpU75J5V4o&playnext=1&list=PL97792F010C17930F&index=28]
Some facts from reusit.com:
- 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year, worldwide.
- About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.
- A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.
- More than 3.5 million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were discarded in 2008.
- Only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled.
- The U.S. goes through 100 billion single-use plastic bags annually. This costs retailers about $4 billion a year.
- Plastic bags are the second-most common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette butts.
- Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down.
- Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.
- Only about 0.5%-3% of all bags are recycled.
When I was on Komodo Island a couple of years ago I actually saw a big male dragon poop out a plastic bag! I couldn’t believe my eyes but my friend Arie Daru said that it happens to many animals in Indonesia because there is so much garbage dumped in the ocean. What I saw floating in the Flores Sea would break your heart….