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Plastic Facts
- 18,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square kilometre of the world's oceans.
- Six million tonnes of debris enters the world's oceans every year.
- Australians use 6.9 billion plastic shopping bags every year. While Australians are using fewer plastic bags, too much plastic rubbish is being dumped so it ends up in our seas.
- More than half the debris in Australia's seas comes from land – and up to 80 per cent around our cities.
- Plastic dumped on land can carried along streams or blown hundreds of kilometers into the ocean. About 47 per cent of wind-borne litter escaping from landfills is plastic (mostly plastic bags).
- About one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals (including 30,000 seals) and turtles are killed by plastic marine litter every year, around the world.
- Worldwide, at least 143 marine species are known to have become entangled in marine debris (including almost all of the world's sea turtles) and at least 177 marine species (including most sea birds) to have eaten plastics and other litter.
- About 10,000 turtles are caught accidentally by trawl fishing nets each year in northern Australia.
- While some marine debris breaks down fairly quickly, plastic debris can take the longest to break down:
- paper towel 2- - 4 weeks
- Styrofoam cup - 50 years
- Plastic bottle - 450 years
- Monofilament fishing net - 600 years
- Glass Bottle - 1 Million Years
- Plastic Bag - 10 to 20 years
- Cigarette filter - 1 to 2 years
I have found:
- Plastic Bags
- Plactic Containers
- Plastic Bottles
- Bottle Tops
- Tooth Brushes
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- Shoes (always just 1)
- Broken Toys
- Lolly Wrappers
- Beer Bottles
- Broken Glass
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- Coat Hanger
- Chip Packets
- Styrofoam Cups
- Bait Bags
- Peices of Plastic
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- Burst Balloons
- Tennis Balls
- Food Containers
- Clothing
- Room Key Cards
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