Reusable Bags Ecozuri

Skip to Main Content »

You're currently on:

Plastics, as a material, have significantly advanced people’s life. However, excessive use of plastics, without adequate recycling, also causes alarming environmental danger. Today, only 3-5% of plastic waste is recycled in any way. The majority of them end up in landfills, where they take more than 1,000 years to decompose. Some others find their way into the ocean, forming a garbage patch twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, the littered plastic wastes pose a serious threat to wildlife, and bring the “white” pollution to our cities and country side.
Four to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year worldwide. America consumers, alone, consumed 380 million of them. Although these bags are seemingly free or of very minimal cost, they collectively add huge energy and environmental burdens.
  • Production of plastic bags contributes to air pollution and energy consumption
  • It takes 1,000 years for polyethylene bags to break down in a landfill or ocean
  • As polyethylene breaks down, toxic substances leach into the soil and enter the food chain
  • Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags
  • Plastic bags are easily carried by the wind into forests, ponds, rivers, and lakes
Americans developed a love affair for bottled water but, as yet, not for the recycling of plastic bottles yet. From 1997 to 2007, the sales of bottled water have grown by more than 10 fold, but the recycling rate for plastic bottles dropped by 4%. The energy and environmental costs of the bottles, again, is significant.
  • Production of the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water bottles used in the United States (about one bottle per person every four days) requires more than 17 million barrels of crude oil annually
  • Every ton of PET produced releases around three tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The bottled water industry added more than 2.7 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2006.