The Breakdown of Plastics in the Ocean
Microplastics are ingested by marine life and then consumed by us.
One study of dead seabirds found that 92.5% had ingested plastics equal to 5% of their body weight.
An estimated 46,000 pieces of plastic occupy each square mile of ocean.
More than 250 marine species are known to have eaten or become entangled in plastic.
Plastic doesn’t decompose, it just gets smaller. Single-use plastic bottles can break up into 10,000 pieces of microplastic.
Americans use more than 100 billion plastic bags per year, each taking 400-1000 years to break down.
More than 8 million tons of plastic waste enters our oceans every year. That’s 1 garbage truckload every minute. (that was a spacing correction.)
Between 170 million to 390 million plastic straws are used by Americans every day or 63 billion to 142 billion straws per year.
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