LEARN HOW YOU CAN DO YOUR PART
- It only takes about 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile.
- Target gives away enough plastic bags a year to wrap around the Earth 7 times.
- The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year.
- 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags annually.
- Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes, but a single bag has a life expectancy of 1,000 years
- Plastic bags are the second most common item of trash found on Delaware’s beaches (after cigarette butts)
- DE statewide plastic bag recycling law went into effect December 1, 2009. Requires retail stores with 7,000 square feet or more of retail space to set up a plastic carry-out bag recycling program for customers
- Just this year (February 2017) in Norway a Goose Beaked whale beached itself and later perished from having ingested 30 plastic bags ranging in size from candy wrappers to trash bags, that it had likely mistaken for squid.
- A study performed by students at the University of California found that 1/4 of the fish in California and Indonesia fish markets had ingested plastic or some other man made fibrous material.
Become Educated
Review the statistics above to become informed on what type of litter most frequently finds its way into our oceans.
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Take Action
Eliminate your usage of plastic bags by investing in reusable bags.
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Pass It On
Help out by informing your friends, family, and people you interact with on a daily basis on what they can do to become more sustainable.
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MAST 667: Debating Marine Conservation
University of Delaware
700 Pilottown Road
Lewes, DE 19958
University of Delaware
700 Pilottown Road
Lewes, DE 19958