Question: How much plastic has been made since the 1950's?

Answer: 9 Billion Metric Tons

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Question: What garbage patch was discovered in 2017 and how big is it?

Answer: The South Pacific Garbage patch. 1 1/2 times the size of Texas
The Great Pacific Patch 3 times the sizes of France.

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Question: By 2050, what is expected to happen to the amount of plastic compared to the number of fish?

Answer: There will be more plastic in the ocean than fish

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Question: . What do nearly all seabirds eat and why?

Answer: Plastic. They mistake it for fish

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Question: What does the sun do to plastic over time?

Answer: The sun degrades the bigger plastics into smaller pieces.

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Question: Do humans ingest plastic?

Answer: yes

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Question: Why do we produce so much plastic?

Answer: Cheap to produce, versatile, medical field use it for needles, phones

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Question: What is the percentage of the plastic that we have already produced still exist today? What is the percentage that is still in use today? How much is actually recycled or incinerated?

Answer: 60% still exist today
20%-30% still in use
Tiny fraction recycled

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Question: How much plastic was produced in 1950? How much is currently produced per year?

Answer: 2 million
It has increased nearly 200 times
350 million tons per year.

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Question: What did we do before we used plastic so much?

Answer: Used to save and reuse materials.
Colonial times - waste not want not
Great Depression - Use it up, ware it out, make it do, or do with out.

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Question: 1. What was the US government campaigning in WWII?

Answer: Save and reuse everything from scrap medal, rubber, gasoline, paper, and animal fat.

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Question: What happened when the economic boom occurred?

Answer: Disposable life styles became fashionable

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Question: Why was the "Keep America Beautiful" coalition founded and who founded and funded this?

Answer: Founded in the 1950s.
Founded and Funded: Beverage and Packaging industries.

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Question: What is the recycling rate in the US? In Europe?

Answer: 30%

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Question: Is the way we recycle the solution to our plastic problem?

Answer: No

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Question: What is probably the only way we can reduce plastic waste?

Answer: Make less plastic

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Question: How much garbage does the average American throw away per day?

Answer: 4 1/2 pounds of trash

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Question: How much of the waste produced in the world is produced by the US?

Answer: 1/3

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Question: Does the chasing arrows (recycling symbol) mean that it can be recycled?

Answer: no

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Question: Where did much of our plastic waste go before 2018?

Answer: China

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Question: Now half of our plastic waste is stuck in the US. Why is that?

Answer: China does not buy the plastic from america anymore harder to sell. A lot of the plastic is stuck in ware house all across America. They can not do price adjustments fast enough to keep up with the marker.

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Question: What percentage of plastic is single use plastic?

Answer: 40%

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Question: Worldwide, there have been bans on single use plastics. Does the US have any such bans?

Answer: Some counties and cities have some type of ban or tax on plastics.

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Question: What is the first major US city that bans some single use plastics (utensils, straws, bags) and when did this happen? What does this city use in place of single use plastics?

Answer: Portland
July 2018
Compost straws
Compost products.

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Question: Which one of our neighbors is trying to place bans on all single use plastics by 2021? Do the citizens of this country support a ban on single use plastics?

Answer: Canada
81% support the idea of a ban

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Question: Unilever believes that what is more important than efforts to ban plastics?

Answer: Recovering and reusing the plastic is more important.

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Question: Does the industrial ecologist in this video think recycling will fix our problem with plastics? How much plastic does he say goes unrecycled?

Answer: no

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Question: 1. When did plastic (PET) bottles start being used?

Answer: 1978

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Question: How many plastic bottles does Coca-Cola make per year?

Answer: over 120 billion

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Question: A British company is using plastic waste to make what?

Answer: Roads

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Question: What are some of the things mentioned in the video that could be done to help reduce the amount of plastic waste that is produced?

Answer: Start small

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