Every year, enough plastic is thrown away to circle the Earth four times, and more plastic has been produced in the last 10 years than there was in the entire 20th century. I’ll let you do the calculations. Plastic has overrun our lives, and half of the plastic we use only gets used once and then it gets thrown out. We get that some plastic can’t be reused right then and there, but it can be recycled to be turned into something that can be reused. For example, instead of using a plastic bag and a plastic water bottle for lunch, replace them with a lunch box and a thermos, and you’d be surprised how much slower you’ll go through plastic bags. Around 500 billion plastic bags are used every year worldwide, and most of the time they don’t get reused or they start to pile up somewhere because they don’t get used enough. By trading them for reusable fabric shopping bags, you’re saving both time and money, because they can fit more items than a plastic bag can without breaking.
Recycling has grown over the years, but so has the production of plastic. In order for it to undo the several years that recycling wasn’t as popular it will have to continue growing, because it is showing improvement despite the high pollution numbers. If everyone switches from disposable plastic items to reusable ones and recycles the plastic that they don’t use, the environment and our wallets will continue to benefit.