References

1. World Wildlife Fund. 2019. No Plastic in Nature: Assessing Plastic Ingestion from Nature to People. https://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/plastic_ingestion_web_spreads.pdf

2. Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 2017. The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics. https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/the-new-plastics-economy-rethinking-the-future-of-plastics-catalysing-action

3. The World Counts. Accessed 2023. Number of plastic bags produced. https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/waste/plastic-bags-used-per-year

4. National Geographic. 2018. Fast facts about plastic pollution. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/plastics-facts-infographics-ocean-pollution

5. Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program. 2008. Plastic Bag Factsheet. https://www.sprep.org/attachments/Publications/FactSheet/plasticbags.pdf

6. U.S. EPA. 2018. Advancing Sustainable Materials Management 2015 Tables and Figures: Assessing Trends in Material Generation, Recycling, Composting, Combustion with Energy Recovery and Landfilling in the United States. Pp. 9

7. N. Mrosovsky, 2009. Leatherback Turtles: The Menace of Plastic, 58 MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 287.

8. Ecology Center. Accessed 2021. Adverse Health Effects Of Plastics. https://ecologycenter.org/factsheets/adverse-health-effects-of-plastics/

9. ACS Publications. 2020. “Degradation Rates of Plastics in the Environment,” Pages 3495, 3499-3500, 3503. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b06635

10. Sasha G. Tetu, Indrani Sarker, Verena Schrameyer, Russell Pickford, Liam D. H. Elbourne, Lisa R. Moore & Ian T. Paulsen. 2019. Plastic leachates impair growth and oxygen production in Prochlorococcus, the ocean’s most abundant photosynthetic bacteria. Communications Biology, Vol. 2, No. 184.

11. Ocean Conservancy. Accessed 2021. "International Coastal Cleanup Report 2019," Page 2. https://oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Final-2019-ICC-Report.pdf

12. Romer, J. 2020. August 2020 Bag Law Map Update. https://www.plasticbaglaws.org/blog/2020/8/17/new-pbls-bag-law-updates

13. Excell, C. 2019. 127 Countries Now Regulate Plastic Bags. Why Aren't We Seeing Less Pollution?

14. Greener Ideal. Accessed 2021. Life Cycle of a Plastic Bag.

Banner photo courtesy Flickr/Minustide