Plastic Pollution in Hawaii

Humans have produced more than 8 billion tons of plastic, mostly since the 1950s. Less than 10 percent of it has been recycled. It breaks down into tiny pieces finding its way into our oceans, rivers, the food we eat, the soil where we grow our food, rainfall in the Rocky Mountains, and depths of the Arctic. We cannot escape it. 

HOW MUCH TO WE DIGEST?

One research review published in June calculated that just by eating, drinking and breathing, Americans ingest at least 74,000 microplastic particles every year. Another recent study commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund and conducted by researchers at the University of Newcastle in Australia estimated that people consume about 5 grams of plastic a week — roughly the equivalent of a credit card.

For anyone living in the United States in 2019, plastic is nearly impossible to avoid: It lines soup cans, leaches out of storage containers, hides in household dust, and is found inside of toys, electronics, shampoo, cosmetics and countless other products. It’s used to make thousands of single-use items, from grocery bags to forks to candy wrappers.

Most plastic and packaging found on our market shelves cannot be recycled.  So where does it go? What is collected for recycling doesn't actually even get recycled. Yes, in the United States we do not even process our own recycling. In the past, this plastic was sold and shipped across the world to other countries, mostly to be burned at fuel for factories. One word; EMISSIONS. Currently, no one is accepting more of our trash! Wow go figure.