Transcript Lawrence Alex Wu/Marine Photobank. © Ziggy Livnat 08/Marine Photobank. Plastics and People Ted Raynor/Marine Photobank..

Lawrence Alex Wu/Marine Photobank.
© Ziggy Livnat 08/Marine Photobank.
Plastics
and People
Ted Raynor/Marine Photobank..
Plastic Production
Maleen/Marine Photobank
History of plastic
Parkesine -1862
Celluloid - 1870
Bakelite - 1907
Polystyrene - 1929
Plastic waste generated and recovered, 1960 to 2009
32
28
24
Million tons
Plastic waste generated
20
16
12
8
Recovered for recycling
4
0
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Year
EPA, 2010. Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2009 Facts
and Figures. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office
of Solid Waste (5306P), EPA530-R-10-012, Page 55
1955
• LIFE Magazine
article
“Throwaway
Living”
• New idea: “waste
saves time”
Demand
(c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
$$$
Consumption
The U.S. consumes as much oil as:
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bulgaria Czech Republic
Germany Greece
Italy
Kazakhstan
Norway
Poland
Russia
Slovakia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Belarus
Denmark
Hungary
Lithuania
Portugal
Spain
Ukraine
Belgium Luxembourg
Finland
France
Iceland
Ireland
Netherlands
Romania
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
COMBINED!
Plastic bags
• 1.2 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide
each year
 greater than 1 million bags per minute
• Average use before disposal = 12 minutes
Ingestion of plastic by sea turtles is
increasing.
Plastic bags
Costs
• 12 million barrels of oil are used to
make plastic bags for the U.S. each
year.
• Fuel for plastic bags each year
~$100/barrel x 12 million barrels =
$1.2 billion
• In San Francisco, $8.5 million was spent annually to deal
with plastic bag litter.