1. Plastics and People Lawrence Alex Wu/Marine Photobank. Ted Raynor/Marine Photobank.. © Ziggy Livnat 08/Marine Photobank.

2. Plastic Production Maleen/Marine Photobank

3. History of plastic Parkesine -1862 Celluloid - 1870 Bakelite - 1907 Polystyrene - 1929

5. 32 28 24 20 16 12 8 4 0 Million tons 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Year Plastic waste generated and recovered, 1960 to 2009 EPA, 2010. Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2009 Facts and Figures. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste (5306P), EPA530-R-10-012, Page 55 Plastic waste generated Recovered for recycling

6. 1955 LIFE Magazine article “Throwaway Living” New idea: “waste saves time”

7. Demand

8. (c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank $$$

9. Consumption Austria AzerbaijanBelarusBelgiumLuxembourg Bulgaria Czech RepublicDenmarkFinlandFrance Germany GreeceHungaryIcelandIreland ItalyKazakhstanLithuaniaNetherlands NorwayPolandPortugalRomania RussiaSlovakiaSpainSweden Switzerland TurkeyTurkmenistanUkraineUnited Kingdom Uzbekistan The U.S. consumes as much oil as: COMBINED!

10. Plastic bags 1.2 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year  greater than 1 million bags per minute Average use before disposal = 12 minutes Ingestion of plastic by sea turtles is increasing.

11. Plastic bags Costs 12 million barrels of oil are used to make plastic bags for the U.S. each year. Fuel for plastic bags each year ~$100/barrel x 12 million barrels = $1.2 billion In San Francisco, $8.5 million was spent annually to deal with plastic bag litter.