Half of All Plastic That Has Ever Existed Was Made in the Past 13 Years

Half of All Plastic That Has Ever Existed Was Made in the Past 13 Years. Plastic production is rapidly accelerating, according to an ambitious new paper—but only 9 percent of it gets recycled.

Think about that for a second. Half of all plastics were created from the year 2003 up until now. If you thought your Govt cared about the Environment even a little, you'd be wrong. Plastic contains chemicals that cause imbalance and disease in Man and our Wildlife as well.

Yet these Corporate bastards keep pumping this sht out anyway.

In 2014, scientists found a new kind of of “stone” on the beaches of Hawaii. It was made of sand, organic debris, volcanic rock, all swirled together with melted plastic. So they proposed the name “plastiglomerate” and they suggested that, as plastic lasts pretty much forever, these stones could be a marker of the Anthropocene in the rock record. In the future, our time might be defined by our use of plastics.

Which is not particularly hard to imagine, given the ubiquity of plastics. Now, for the first time, researchers have published a sweeping, public, and in-depth accounting of all plastic that has ever been made in the entire world. The number is so big as to defy human comprehension: 8,300 million metric tons since 1950. Of this, 6,400 million metric tons has outlived its usefulness and become waste; 79 percent of that waste is sitting in landfills or the natural environment, 12 percent has been incinerated, and just 9 percent has been recycled.
www.theatlantic.com...

Bottled water is the biggest demand. Then there is plastic food wraps for meat. Cheap household items with plastic bits that fall apart. Not forgetting hundreds of plastic bags used once then discarded.

Ok and you use plastic so why did you make this post ?
Corps well they just use what every is cheep the consumers that buy the stuff dictate the market for it .
I agree plastic is a problem but that does not stop me from using it nore you .

Humans baa we will talk our self right into the grave .
Nothing has changed in 10,000 years and if we are still here it will be the same in 10,000 more .
Humans are not Intelligent we are a skip hop and jump smarter then a dog .

If it had been wolfs it would still be the same . Chimps pick one .
Humans spend most of the time letting instinct run there life . Just like every animal .
Try this ( what did you have for lunch two weeks agaio ? or yesterday .

originally posted by: stormcell
Bottled water is the biggest demand. Then there is plastic food wraps for meat. Cheap household items with plastic bits that fall apart. Not forgetting hundreds of plastic bags used once then discarded.

Yeah. The bottled water Industry along with Coke and other Corps. The rate of consumption triples every year.

a reply to: midnightstar

Ok and you use plastic so why did you make this post ? 

Why do you think I made this post brainiac?

For the same reason you made a thread called "Man can effect global climate."

and just think if it hadnt been for Hearst and some sellout politicians all that plastic would be made out of plant extracts and wouldnt be a problem at all.



thanks prohibition!

Back when I was a kid and used to go shoot rats at the dump with my father, there was very little plastic at the dump. I don't think we should be using so much plastic, that stuff is really bad for the environment.

a reply to: tribal

Yeah. There's a few ways they could have gone, but they chose the most destructive. They always do.

a reply to: rickymouse

It's bad for your health too. The chemicals in it when heated, do damage. I don't think people know yet just how much.

I wonder if those rats will evolve like cockroaches have. I read an article several years ago that cockroaches were found in New York City living off of electrical wiring.

originally posted by: ADSE255
a reply to: rickymouse

It's bad for your health too. The chemicals in it when heated, do damage. I don't think people know yet just how much.

I wonder if those rats will evolve like cockroaches have. I read an article several years ago that cockroaches were found in New York City living off of electrical wiring.

Back in the sixties, the garbage at the dump was mostly biodegradeable. If there wasn't so much chemicals thrown out, it would have been pretty good. Even the motor oil back in the sixties was not full of chemicals like it is today. Same with gas and fuel oil, now they add additives that make them worse on the environment.

We have really gone astray.

a reply to: midnightstar

I agree plastic is a problem but that does not stop me from using it nore you .

There are things you can do as a consumer to minimize use of petroleum base products.

That is where plastic comes from, oil. Same with a blizzard of other products we consume all the live long day.

But what the hell, I'm tired of linking things every time someone says. "So what?"

a reply to: intrptr

We try to use as little plastic as we can, we opt for paper bags or use our own cloth bags when getting stuff at the store. We recycle our egg cartons, we buy eggs from regular people we know. It is impossible to go without using any, but we have cut down our use by at least two thirds over the years. We even buy glass tupperware type bowls but they still have plastic lids. But we reuse even the plastic bags we get. Same with the paper bags.

I can't stand that everything bought now seems to be enclosed in plastic or has styrofoam. We do it more to reduce our exposure to the endocrine disruptors in plastic, even a plastic bag in the sun can cause bad gasses in your car.

a reply to: midnightstar
you would be wrong if you believe some of us are trying our damnedest to remove plastic from our lives as much as we could. Ask my wife how my crusade is going, its pissing her off lol! I have loaded both vehicles with the reusable bags so when we go shopping we don't bring those plastic bags home. However, We do use the plastic bags for our small trash can and we will get them from when we just go up the street to grab one item or sometimes just ask neighbors for some of their extras if we are out. I make sure to wash and recycle everything I can. Plastic containers, even the individual ones for pudding and yogurt I wash and recycle. Of course she ends up buying them because she thinks they are easier to deal with. But buying the bulk container reduces the amount of container waste as well as saves a bit of change.

All plastic bags from the cereal, plastic packaging and small plastic bags from toy, tools, or electronic parts also go into that container (another plastic bag) and when Im full I drop it off at whichever store has the recycling option for it. Same goes for Styrofoam packaging and containers, I wash them, add them to a bag and take them specifically to Publix since they have a logistics chain for recycling Styrofoam.

When it comes to toys, I have drilled into their kids head about the absolute uselessness of plastic and encourage them to go after metal and wood toys instead. To show an appropriate example of this, I stepped on one of those little #ty toy cars you find in grab bags from kids parties and a Hot Wheel. The cheap plastic toy shattered into pieces, and the Die Cast hot wheel was just fine. Now when they get those little plastic cars from their friends bday parties, I have encouraged them to try and sell them off to the suckers at school for a least a quarter, but settle for a dime lol. No use holding on to garbage if they can make a little extra change. My oldest tries to trade them for toys he likes better though, and sometimes it works.

Now that the wife just read this article though, it has finally convinced her to replace our food storage containers with an awesome 20 piece glass set we saw at Sams. We our down to like our last six off size plastic containers from different sets, so this new glass set will be a blessing.

Now appliances and electronics is where I have a difficulty with finding a way to recycle. The metal and wires I add to my scrap piles and sell, but the plastic from electronic and home appliance housings are typically ABS plastic, and has much less avenues for reuse in Florida than the West Coast. I know in California they have public facilities where you can even drop off ABS plastic. The only ABS plastic recycles I have found in Tampa though will only accept after it has already been shredded into pellets. I will have to go back now and see if maybe he can accept it if I smash them into little bits with a hammer. Seems like alot of effort though, maybe a compacter can work and I bring it to him baled into a 1 foot cubed square lol!

SO in closing, there are many things all of us can do to reduce our plastic waste or consumption, and some of us already do. This family does not do bottled water, we like our Tampa Tap. I just refill a 2 gallon self serve sports jug every couple of days from the tap. When you got five kids its easier for the parents to not have to respond fifteen times a day to "May I have some water please?" and just let them serve it to themselves. Its a spill proof spigot type, you have to push in the button to release the water, and it stops when you let go. I thought about the flip valve, but there was a chance the little ones would just forget it in down position. Whatever now I m ranting.

I may not give a damn about a species of bird or turtle in a specific place ready for development, but I am a recycling fanatic, and have been since I was about ten. So much so that I drove my parents crazy with guilt trips abut how their generation is leaving us a planet of toxic waste and apathy. It finally got them recycling amazingly, but not so much until after I moved out at 21.

There is zero reason people should not be recycling in the 21st century if their community offers curbside pickup. Apartment life clearly does not always have those options. I use to fill a 30 gallon trash bag with our recycles and then drive to the community drop off to get rid of it. Yup, I am that fanatical about waste reduction. We do not even throw away torn and tattered clothing or bed sets. One of the local recycling groups has clothing drop offs all over town with a statement that they return unusable clothes to textile recyclers and the fabrics are used in other applications.

TRY ME! Nobody recycles more than I! I even save all the rechargeable batteries and dead CFL bulbs and ink cartridges and scratched CD's and DVD's and take them all to Best Buy, because they have a supply line for those as well!!

BWahahha!!! I shall become a super hero of waste reduction footprint!!!!

woohh... I am starting to see flashy colors and i am getting lightheaded now ..... wsc out!

a reply to: rickymouse

We do it more to reduce our exposure to the endocrine disruptors in plastic, even a plastic bag in the sun can cause bad gasses in your car.

Did not think of that, thanks.

Hotels and cruise ships use tons of small plastic containers with screw tops that get thrown out and litter the worlds oceans and beaches.

Plastic decays to smaller and smaller bits but doesn't decompose, leaving plastic compounds behind that are toxic to fish and people.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

I use glass whenever I can as well. Great to see some here making the attempt atleast. The fact is, we will never be a plastic free world ever again. Unless the world goes boom, it's here to stay.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

Now appliances and electronics is where I have a difficulty with finding a way to recycle. The metal and wires I add to my scrap piles and sell, but the plastic from electronic and home appliance housings are typically ABS plastic, and has much less avenues for reuse in Florida than the West Coast. I know in California they have public facilities where you can even drop off ABS plastic.

Those outlets are closing here in CA.. The garbage company recyclables container is our best option now. If it makes it into the blue bin it gets reprocessed, even if its only in roadbeds or plastic playgrounds, still keeps it from going to landfill.

There just isn't much reuse option for one use, throwaway plastic anything.

But that is intentional too, if you use it and throw it away you have to buy another one.

Win win for the Petrol Chemical Industry.

a reply to: intrptr
Wait what! They are shutting down ABS recycling facilities in Cali?? That sounds unorthodox for the Green State. Have you checked to see if they are only closing public drop off at their facilities?? There is an e-waste recycler in town that bales their ABS plastic and ships it to Cali. If its not being recycled there, than it is being exported to China or South America instead.

Man if I could only shred mine into pellets, I would just drop it off to the business here in town.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

Wait what! They are shutting down ABS recycling facilities in Cali??

No, the receiving centers. Same with paint and chemicals. Used to be one here next to the dump but they closed it. Now you have to make arrangement to pick up at your house (for chemicals) and throw all plastics in the recycle garbage can.

I take metals, cans and CA Redemption stamped plastic bottles to recycle centers and get paid for it.

a reply to: intrptr
Well, we do our part the best we can I suppose. The county here receives hazardous household one saturday a month for each region. Northwest is one Saturday, than North East is another, than south East and so on. There is more than four actually, but only some of them receive hazardous household waste on specific Saturday's . I only produce CFL's and rechargable batteries, and I just turn those into Best Buy. I trust the industry experts to know what they are doing with those items, and I can walk in any day of the week and drop them off at the entrance. Take my old disks as well there.

Sometimes when I find a huge DVD collection as part of my scavenging trips, I just sell them for whatever at the Sound Exchange. If they are empty or too scratched I throw the cases into my recycling bin and take the disks to Best Buy.

Disk related media is pretty much obsolete and the DVD holocaust started years ago. We no longer purchase physical media for our entertainment, its all available as free streams and downloads nowadays anyways.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

We no longer purchase physical media for our entertainment, its all available as free streams and downloads nowadays anyways.

When I think of all the records, reel to reel, eight track, cassette tape, VCR, Beta and VHS , dvd and all the associated players I ever used up...

Big World wide savings on plastic.

...as part of my scavenging trips, I just sell them for whatever...

Alright, alright, another scavenger, after my own heart! Thats my found niche, I dive, scrounge and scavenge too; sell at flea markets, outlets and recycle centers tooo.

Buying at small businesses and fleamarkets when I can , keeps it local and 'greener' toooo.