Single-use plastics are made from oil, with more being burned during their transportation. Most of this plastic (an estimated 91%!) unfortunately ends up in a landfill or in the environment. The equivalent of a garbage truck of plastic is being dumped into the ocean each minute, and this is ever increasing. The plastic that does make it to a recycling facility can't be recycled indefinitely, meaning it's eventually discarded. From there it takes plastic about 450 years to degrade, and it can't completely decompose. Instead, it becomes microplastics which can't be cleaned up, end up being consumed by marine life, and move up the food chain and onto our dinner plates.
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