WE DREAM A WORLD FREE
FROM PLASTIC WASTE
And you?
BACKGROUND
Plastic accumulation is one of the environmental plagues of 21st century.
Global plastic consumption has gone from 5.5 million tons in the 1950s to over 300 million tons in 2015. Plastic residues accumulate everywhere, on land and water.
SOURCE: http://conservefewell.org/plastic-bag-bans-feeling-good-about-ourselves-but-are-we-making-a-difference/
SOURCE: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
The oceans are proof of this huge problem:
huge patches of plastic debris have been forming in the oceans. One of the most notorious is the Great Pacific garbage patch. This is a huge area in the Pacific ocean, with a minimum estimated size comparable to the extension of Texas. The consequences of accumulation of plastic debris, both on land and water, are detrimental for all type of life on the planet, gravely affecting the food chain and, ultimately, the welfare of the human beings.
Disposal of plastic
Today, Americans alone discard about 33.6 million tons of plastic each year, but only 6.5 percent of it is recycled and 7.7 percent is combusted in waste-to-energy facilities, which create electricity or heat from garbage, although with a big environmental cost. The rest ends up in landfills where it may take up to 1,000 years to decompose, and potentially leak pollutants into the soil and water. In Europe, about 30% is recycled, mostly polyethylene and PET (plastic bags/packaging and plastic bottles, respectively), and about 40% is incinerated. Ecological and economical motivations pressure to find solution for reducing plastic waste disposal.
6.5%
