Planet Ark

Tens of thousands of whales, birds, seals and turtles are killed every year from plastic bag litter in the marine environment as they often mistake plastic bags for food such as jellyfish.

Plastic bags, once ingested, cannot be digested or passed by an animal so it stays in the gut. Plastic in an animal’s gut can prevent food digestion and can lead to a very slow and painful death.

As plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to break down, once an animal dies and decays after ingesting plastic, the plastic is then freed back into the marine environment to carry on killing other wildlife.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Plastic bags are petroleum-based and do not biodegrade.
• Sea turtles and other marine creatures mistake plastics and other garbage as food (such as jellyfish) and ingest it. This mistake causes blockages within their digestive system and eventual death.
• According to the US EPA, Americans use more than 380 billion plastic bags and wraps each year. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce this many bags.  Worldwide, as many as one trillion plastic bags are used each year. This equates to 100 million barrels of oil!
• Plastic toxins end up in fish, which end up on our plates, which end up inside our bodies.
• In 2007, San Francisco was the first city in the United States to ban petroleum-based plastic bags in large markets and pharmacies.
• Less than 5% of plastics are recycled worldwide!

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