- Packaging comprises one-third of the gross weight and one-half of
the total volume of America's municipal solid waste.
- Americans account for an average of 800 pounds of packaging per year.
- 320 million hot and cold take-out cups are purchased every day
in the United States.
- Each year more than 150 billion single-use beverage containers are
sold in the United States.
- One out of every three servings of water consumed in the United States
now comes in a plastic bottle, for a total of 45 million per day, of
which just 10 percent are recycled.
- According to a CNN poll in 2001, of the 80 percent of people who buy
Christmas gift for their pets, 67 percent wrap them.
- Today the total volume of plastics produced worldwide has surpassed
that of steel and continues to increase.
- About 30% of plastics produced each year, over 20 million tons, is
used for packaging (its largest use by far).
- In Western Europe, 42 percent of all plastics are used for packaging.
- Food and beverage packaging accounts for approximately 70 percent
of the more than $100 billion packaging market in the United States
and more than half of the $500 billion worldwide market.
- More than 500 million virgin wood pallets are produced in the United
States every year, many of which are used just once and then disposed
of.
- Over 100 billion pounds of synthetic adhesives are used in the United
States each year for packaging.
- A billion pounds of plastic is used in trash bags each year in the
United States, which in a sense, is packaging for garbage.
- Beach litter is between 40 and 60 percent plastic.
- Polyethylene accounts for 40 percent of all plastics produced worldwide
- 80 billion pounds a year which corresponds to a global consumption
rate of 16 pounds per person.
- 4 billion pounds of PET plastics are manufactured annually in the
United States with over half being used to make bottles.
- There are over 4,000 different types of plastic additives. The global
plastic additives business amounts to about $16 billion per year.
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