Plastic Pollution

HOW HUMANS ARE TURNING THE WORLD

INTO PLASTIC

What Happens to Since 1950, we have

produced 8.3 billion
Plastic After it is metric tons of plastic
Disposed of? waste globally.
(CBS News, 2018)

12% burned
Plastic Appeal
- Durable polymers
9% recycled - Lightweight
- Moldeable
The rest ends up in landfills or oceans. In - Flexible
landfills, when plastic is mixed with rain - High tensile strength
water, it produces a toxic runoff called - Cheap to produce
leachate, which poisons water in our (UN Environment, 2018)

ecosystems and harms marine life.

(Bryce, 2015)
(UN Environment, 2018)

Plastic Degradation
- Plastic takes between 400 and 1000 years
to break down in landfills. (UN environment, 2018)
- In the ocean, floating plastic undergoes
a process called photodegradation,
where heat from the sun breaks down
the plastic into smaller forms (<5mm in
Effects on
length) called microplastics.
(Moharir, R. V., & Kumar, S. , 2019) Marine Life

- 5-12 million metric tons of

Effects on
Human Health
Microplastics travel up the food
chain, ending up in the fish on
our plates. Plastic has also been
found in tap water, beer, and sea
salt. This poses a threat to human
health, as these microplastics are
toxic. (UN Environment, 2018)
plastic end up in the oceans each
year.
- Microplastics are easier for
marine life to consume because
they are so small. Plastic makes
sea creatures feel full when they
are not, leading to starvation.
- By 2050, it is projected there
will be more plastic in the ocean
than fish. (CBS News, 2018)

WAYS TO HELP
1. REFUSE SINGLE USE
PLASTICS
- Pros: Helps an individual
reduce their habit of using
plastic for sake of convenience.
-Cons: Critics argue this does
little to effectively curb plastic
waste in the long run.
("The United States Needs to Phase Out All
Single-Use Plastic , 2018)
2. BUY A REUSABLE
GROCERY BAG
- Pros: Limits waste from
plastic bags.
-Cons: A reusable cotton
bag would have to be used
7,100 times to have less of
an environmental impact
than a single-use plastic
bag. Reusable bags also
pose sanitary concerns.
("Plastic Waste", 2018)
(UN Environment, 2018)
3. SPREAD
AWARENESS
- Pros: Educating friends
and family on sustainable
living through social
media can help inspire
change.
-Cons: People can be
educated on the effects of
plastic on the
environment and still not
care enough to take
action.