Plastic is Everywhere!
From food packaging to computer parts, plastic is used for everything. As of 2020, about 360 million tons of plastic are being produced and discarded in landfills each year. While plastic has many benefits (it makes life easier and in some ways safer) it also has devastating impacts on our planet and human health.
Plastic began being mass-produced in the 1940s, but since the 2000s, more plastic has been produced in the last 20 years than in all of the 1900s. One of the biggest problems with plastic is that it takes a very long time to break down, and in the meantime, it takes up space in garbage dumps and landfills. Additionally, plastic is made with chemicals that can harm humans.
Get a better idea of the big picture of the harms of plastic by reading this article: Environmental toll of plastics