Did You know…?

* The average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year. If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth 760 times!

* The world’s largest landfill can be found floating between Hawaii and San Francisco. Wind and sea currents carry marine debris from all over the world to what is now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This “landfill” is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and thousands of pounds of our discarded trash, mostly plastics. Each year hundreds of thousands of sea birds and marine life die from digested plastics mistaken for food. –LA Times

* Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in South Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting up to 30,000 plastic bags a month to weave into hats and handbags. – BBC

via Take Action to Stop the Single-Use Bag Habit.

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