Nine billion reasons to use cloth shopping bags
KAMLOOPS — While I was contemplating Wednesday’s editorial on plastic bags, I happened to pick up a copy of the National Post and looked at the World page. (Yes, an actual copy on newsprint, not online.)
There, in the righthand column, was a story headlined “Nearly all ‘plastics made since 1950 still with us’.”
It’s a fascinating story. Written by Seth Borenstein for the Associated Press, it says more than 9.1 billion tons of plastic has been made since 1950. In fact, most plastic has been made since then because it’s a relatively new material.
Nearly seven billion tons of that 9.1 billion is no longer used. Nine per cent has been recycled, 12 per cent incinerated. Which means there’s 5.5 billion tons of plastic waste still around.