- 63 billion gallons of oil are used every year to supply just the U.S. With plastic water bottles → more than 90% are used only once
- the U.S. Alone throws away 38 billion bottles every year → 2 million tons of plastic that goes into landfills
- this year every single person will consume ~300 pounds/136 kilos of single-use plastic
- plastic is durable → almost every piece of plastic ever made still exist on our planet in one form or the other
- over 80% of ocean plastic leaks from land-based sources → even if you do not live near the ocean,chances are your garbage has found its way into the sea
- ~8million tons of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year → 70% of all ocean plastic sinks
- in Western Mediterranean recent findings show a 1:2 ratio of plastic to plankton
our oceans are driven by 5 major circular currents (“gyres”) created by earth's rotation and the resulting predominant winds → each continent is affected by these massive systems
- scientists estimate that there are more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic afloat in our oceans worldwide
- not a “plastic island”, more of a “plastic smog” in the sea
- sunlight, waves and salt break down plastics into micro-plastic
- toxins entering the ocean hitchhike onto plastic
- in some places there is more plastic than plankton → plastic is being eaten by marine life
- micro-beads in facial scrubs, toothpaste and cosmetics are a significant source of ocean micro-plastic

- the majority of ocean plastic comes from only six countries: China, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka
- more than 2.6 billion people depend on the ocean for their primary source of protein
- by 2025, 10 times more plastic each year is estimated to be dumped into our oceans
an estimated 90% of all seabirds have swallowed plastic at some point in their lives
worldwide, we use an estimated 1 trillion plastic bags each year → nearly 2 million a minute (use time of a typical bag is just 12 minutes)
- 92.6% of Americans over 6 years old have detectable levels of BPA in their bodies. BPA levels in children between 6 and 11 years old are twice as high as those in older Americans. (Center for Disease Control)
- plastic packaging for makes up the majority of municipal waste in America → 80 million tons of waste in America alone, every year, comes from plastic food packaging
- Did you know that single-use coffee pods, tea bags and dryer sheets all contain plastic?
- Americans discard about 34 million tons of plastic each year, only 7% of this is recycled
- Rwanda is one of the few countries that has banned plastic bags
- in the U.S. Only 8% of plastic waste is combusted in waste-to-energy facilities
- value of plastic in Europe:
plastic in landfill: - 100 pounds/$150 per ton
recycled to useful plastic: + $1,200-1,500 per ton

Bioremediation: use of natural organisms to break down hazardous substances into less toxic or non-toxic substances
Phytoremediation: use of green plants to detoxify soil and water contaminated with heavy metals or excess minerals
Pyrogenesis: destruction of combustible waste through use of a plasma torch
Pyrolysis: application of heat to chemical compounds like plastic, to cause decomposition

more on this topic:

The organization "The Plastic Bank" builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities around the world where people earn their money by collecting ocean plastic which is then recycled into “social plastic” and used by their partners (companies around the world like: Henkel, dm, Aldi and Aldi Süd) to package new products.

Practice - Emilio

Theory

Practice - Bibi