Go Green » plastic factoids that might make you ‘gulp’

plastic factoids that might make you ‘gulp’

May 15th, 2008 at 06:44am Jennie Pollock

did you know:

– more than 46,000 pieces of plastic debris float on every square mile of ocean?

– americans use 4 million plastic bottles every hour, yet only 1 of every 4 is recycled?

– some plastics last for 700 years when buried?

these facts are courtesy of the university in our own back yard.

1. Archie | May 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am

I agree that we ought to responsibly manage the amount of plastics that we churn out of factories. Recycling is an excellent thing that everyone should do, and we should try to limit our use of non-bio-degradables!

But the thought of 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in every square miles of ocean… that needs to be placed in context. The majority of those pieces MUST be extremely small, probably microscopic pieces or they would be visible to the naked eye. One plastic water battle can be ground into a million pieces of plastic dust, and would make this statistic sound all the more sensational.

I’ve been around the ocean (on the beaches, in boats) everywhere between Mexico and Alaska, and I’ve never seen enough trash floating anywhere to make me think it is epidemic.
2. Mike | May 15th, 2008 at 10:05 am

I’ve always considered myself “environmentally” friendly, but I now find myself cringing at the term “green.” I consider its present use as nothing more than a politically “in”correct term used by those who want to simplify a very complex issue. The “bandwagon” has jumped on plastic as the villain because it doesn’t degrade. Duhhhhhhh, that’s why it became a widely used material. And by the way, hardly anything degrades in a landfill.

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