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Did you know?

• About 230 million tons of trash is generated per year in the United States alone. Less than a quarter of that is recycled.
   
• Humans generate waste faster than it can be broken down and use up resources faster than they can be replaced.
   
• Two million plastic beverage bottles are used in the US every five minutes. 60,000 plastic bags are used in the US every five seconds. 106,000 aluminum cans are used in the US every thirty seconds.
   
• Six million tones of debris enters the world's oceans every year.
   
• Approximately 80 percent of trash in our oceans and waterways comes from land – via wind and runoff from city streets and highways. About 20 percent of aquatic debris is generated from ships including floats and fishing gear.
   
• Nearly 90 percent of all marine debris is plastic. To date, plastic outweighs zooplankton 6:1.
   
• An estimated 46,000 pieces of plastic litter alone are floating on every square mile of ocean – 70 percent of which will eventually sink.
   
• The average person uses about 200 pounds of plastic in a year. Plastic industry experts expect that number to increase to 300 by the end of the decade.
   
• Each year, 15 billion pounds of plastics are produced in the US alone. Only 1 billion pounds are recycled.
   
• Plastics do not biodegrade. When plastic debris meets water it remains for centuries – breaking down slowly into smaller fragments and finally into plastic dust.
   
• Aluminum cans take up to 100 years to degrade and 6-pack holder rings 450 years.
   
• It takes glass bottles one million years to biodegrade in the natural environments.
   
• Entanglement and ingestion of fishing line, nets, rope and other debris has been reported in more than 260 animal species worldwide.
   
• An estimated 100,000 marine mammals including dolphins, whales, seals and sea turtles choke or get tangled in debris every year.
   
• Nearly 8 million items of debris weighing 7 million pounds were collected by about 35,000 volunteers worldwide during International Cleanup Day 2006.
   
• Nearly 300 species of defenseless wildlife suffers unnecessarily due to dangerous debris.
   
• More than 1 million seabirds are killed by aquatic litter each year.
   
• 86 percent of all sea turtles are affected by marine debris.

Source: Project Aware