Environment Programme estimates that plastic kills 100,000 marine mammals and
turtles and 1 million seabirds every year. Some become tangled in plastic debris, while
others die after eating plastic trash that they can’t digest. Scientists estimate that 80
percent of the ocean’s plastic started out on land.
Now the good news: you can help by tossing plastic into the recycling bin instead of the
trash. A measly 28 percent of plastic bottles were recycled in 2009, according to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. You can help drive that number up.