45 facts that will make you stop using plastic

“Plastic… can come in the form of macroplastics, like bottles and bags that are visible to us, or microplastics, which can be microscopically small,” says Wegner. “Microplastics can come from microfibres of synthetic materials, microbeads from personal care products and other sources, and can be easily ingested by animals like fish and birds.” When microplastics float on the surface or become buried in the sand, they are often mistaken as food sources for seabirds, turtles, and marine mammals, says Dr. Flower. This poses a serious threat to marine habitats, wildlife, and ecosystem balance.

Nearly 700 species of marine animals have been impacted by marine debris, most of which is plastic. “All of us can make choices to reduce our use of plastic, preventing it from becoming pollution that can harm a wide variety of aquatic animals from fish to seabirds to plankton,” says Wegner, who notes that for over ten years, the Shedd Aquarium has hosted beach clean-ups as part of their Great Lakes Action Days program. This has helped the non-profit organisation prioritise straws as a non-recyclable single-use plastic item to focus on in encouraging individuals and businesses to reduce their use. “Keeping straws and microfibres out of animals’ habitats is an important way we can protect and care for them.”

The next time you look up at the skies on a cloudless night, ponder the enormity of the following statistic: As much as 51 trillion microplastic particles litter our seas, which is 500 times more than the number of stars in our galaxy.

There are more single-use plastic products to consider in your daily life beyond straws, water bottles, and grocery bags. For instance, more than 80 billion plastic bottles are being disposed of around the world every year just from shampoo and conditioner alone. This is why environmentally conscious packaging is an important and growing trend. Companies dedicated to sustainable beauty practices, like Ethique (the French word for ‘ethical’), have prevented the manufacture and disposal of more than 350,000 plastic containers worldwide. They’re the world’s first completely zero-plastic, zero-waste beauty brand; their concentrated face, hair, and body products last two-to-five times longer than their traditional bottled counterparts, and dissolve completely – even the sleeves they arrive in are 100 percent dissolvable and compostable, meaning zero consumer waste.

In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences study estimated that about 0.1 percent of global plastic production ended up in our oceans annually. In 2015, a team of researchers examined how much plastic waste coastal countries around the world produced and then estimated how much of that could potentially end up in the ocean. The results, published in Science, indicate that about 4 million to 12 million metric tons of plastic washed offshore in 2010 alone. Scarier still, the authors predict that the annual amount of plastic waste heading out to sea will more than double in the next ten years.

Marine debris in the Pacific accumulates into something called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans. Located halfway between Hawaii and California, this mass of plastic debris takes up over 1.5 million square kilometres of ocean. At the time of sampling, there were more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch that weigh an estimated 80,000 tonnes.

While some companies are taking steps to ban plastic straws, they are still among the top 10 litter items collected at beach clean-ups. Can’t bear to part with your sipping device? Switch to a stainless steel variety you can use over and over again.

According to Greenpeace, all known species of sea turtle, 54 percent of all marine mammal species, and 56 percent of all seabird species have been affected by entanglement (mostly by plastic rope and netting) or ingestion (mostly by plastic fragments and microplastic) of marine debris. This includes an estimated 58 percent of seals and sea lions, plus whales, dolphins, porpoises, and manatees.

Yes, coral reefs are beautiful to explore while snorkelling and diving, but they are more than just eye candy – they’re living, breathing ecosystems that provide homes for 25 percent of all marine life. Plus, 275 million people depend directly on them for their food and livelihoods. Already struggling to survive climate change, reefs now have a new enemy: plastic. In a survey of 159 coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific region, published in Science, researchers estimate there to be 11.1 billion plastic items entangled in the corals. The plastic actually starves reefs of the oxygen and light they need and releases toxins that allow bacteria and viruses to invade. Is the Great Barrier Reef really dying? Find out here.

Marine life experts estimated that over 99 percent of all seabird species – and over 90 percent of individual seabirds – will have ingested plastic by 2050. By comparison, in 1960, plastic was found in the stomach of less than 5 percent of seabirds, rising to 80 percent by 2010. The biggest threat from ingestion occurs when plastic blocks the digestive tract or fills the stomach, resulting in malnutrition, starvation and death.