Plastic Pollution Statistics to Know About

We use plastic for everything: bags, containers, utensils, and more. They also end up everywhere including in our oceans, lakes, soil, and even blood. As we continue to produce more and more single-use plastics, it's important to understand the consequences. Click through the slideshow for plastic pollution statistics you should know

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in 2019, we produced 507 million tons of plastic globally.

About 1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption contain plastic!

In 2019, only 9% of plastic was recycled, while another 22% was mismanaged.

Over 98% of plastic is made from fossil fuels.

There are around 171 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean.

About 80 garbage trucks worth of plastic enter the ocean per hour.

It's estimated that over 1 million marine animals die from plastic pollution. This doesn't even include non-marine wildlife.

Blue whales can eat around 10 million pieces of plastic each day.

By 2050, experts estimate plastic leakage will rise from 24 million tons (2019) to 50 million tons.

One water bottle can take over 450 years to break down, but that doesn't mean it goes away. Instead, plastic never really disappears, it just becomes microplastics.

Only 1% of the plastic in the ocean sits at the top. Another 94% has already sunk to the bottom.

Did you know we are consuming plastic? One study found that out of 22 blood donors, 17 samples had plastic in them. They've also been found in the lungs! In another study 11 out of 13 lung samples contained microplastics.

Within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, experts estimate there are over 1.8 trillion pieces of garbage. Most of this trash is plastic.