Only about 50% of people actually recycle their plastic beverage bottles….did you know that?  It may seem harmless to throw a few in the trash can when its not convenient to find a recycling bin, but those really add up.  Additionally, of all the plastic that heads for recycling through various outlets, only 60% actually ends up being recycled.  What happens to that other 70% of plastic beverage bottles then?  Incinerator, Landfill….well you would probably be horrified to know that much of it actually ends up in the ocean.  It gets there various different ways, blows from litter on the land and from boats, get dumped by people trying to save time and money, you name it.  On average, over 2 million plastic bottles are thrown away every 5 minutes.

In an area of the ocean, called the North Pacific Gyre – there is a floating landfill made up of 90% plastic that spans a width of twice the size of the state of Texas and in some areas 90,000 miles deep.  The wildlife that call this area their home mistake this trash for food and often ingest it which usually leads to death and the others that feed on plankton die of starvation because there is 6 times more plastic then there is plankton.

How do we stop this?  Well, cut down on plastic usage would be the first thing.  Did you know that in most cases your own tap water is cleaner than bottled water?  The bottled water industry doesn’t want you to know this, but the regulations for purity and cleanliness for bottled water is just a mere fraction of what cities and towns have to adhere to for their drinking water standards.  The bottled water industry claims to support recycling as long as it is not at their own cost and generally lobby against any type of recycling incentive, such as bottle deposit.  Michigan, the only state where the bottle deposit is $.10 enjoys a staggering 97% recycling rate for their returnable plastic bottles, where in states that do not require a deposit the rate of recycle is well below 50%.

Its our job to do something about this.  Think, the next time you purchase a plastic bottle.