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Last Updated: 12/15/2009

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Gender: Female
Status: Single
Age: 100
Sign: Virgo

City: SAN DIEGO
State: California
Country: US
Signup Date: 2/11/2009

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February 13, 2009 - Friday

Plastic bag facts

Approx. 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United
States every year. That’s more than 1,200 bags per US resident, per year.
Approx. 100 billion of the 380 billion are plastic shopping bags.
An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make
that many plastic bags.
Only 1 to 2% of plastic bags in the USA end up getting recycled.
Thousands of marine animals and more than 1 million
birds die each year as a result of plastic pollution.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that
there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of
ocean.
Plastic bags are often mistakenly ingested by animals,
clogging their intestines which results in death by starvation. Other animals or
birds become entangled in plastic bags and drown or can’t fly as a result.
Even when they photo-degrade in landfill, the plastic from
single-use bags never goes away, and toxic particles can enter the food chain
when they are ingested by unsuspecting animals.
Greenpeace says that at least 267 marine species are known
to have suffered from getting entangled in or ingesting marine debris. Nearly
90% of that debris is plastic.
Americans consume more than 10 billion paper bags per
year. Approximately 14 million trees are cut down every year for paper bag
production.
Most of the pulp used for paper shopping bags is virgin
pulp, as it is considered stronger.
Paper production requires hundreds of thousands of gallons
of water as well as toxic chemicals like sulphurous acid, which can lead to acid
rain and water pollution.