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How many plastic bags do Americans dispose of each year?

Quite a bit, actually. In 2000, the EPA estimated 3.3 million tons of plastic bags, sacks, and wraps were thrown away.

Only 5.4% were recovered for recycling purposes.

It’s almost impossible to put 3.3 million tons into perspective. But consider this: 1,000 of the common 8-10 gallon plastic trash bags weigh 13 lbs.

That comes out to 500 billion bags. Mind boggling, isn’t it?

OK, we know small things shouldn’t bother you, but sometimes you have to do the math.

I’m talking about the plastic lids Starbucks throws on every hot coffee they sell, whether you want the lid or not.

Every time I order my favorite white chocolate mocha, they serve it to me with a lid.

I asked once if maybe they could dispense with the lid, since after all I was drinking it onsite and not going anywhere in my car with it, but the answer was: No, it’s policy. Must have a lid. Liability and all that, you know.

I get it; we sue businesses all the time, and didn’t the woman who sued McDonald’s win a lot of money when her hot coffee spilled?

So I understand the liability thing. But here’s my point on this: in terms of pounds of plastic garbage these lids add up.

Consider this: there are over 16,875 Starbucks coffee houses around. They stay open about 14 to 16 hours each day, and I’d estimate they sell at least 7 to 9 coffees per hour.

(They sell much more than that, of course; I’m talking about cups of coffee where the drinker doesn’t need or want a lid, probably because like me they stay and drink it onsite while sitting in one of those comfortable lounge chairs Starbucks seems to always have).

So that’s about 98 to 144 unnecessary plastic lids each day at each store.

But let’s make it simple and just say that every Starbucks coffee house sells 100 cups of coffee each day topped with unnecessary plastic lids.

That’s 1,687,500 lids.

Now, it happens that 1,000 of those ubiquitous plastic lids weigh 10.45 lbs. So, after doing the math, we discover there are 17,634 lbs of unnecessary plastic lids everyday being fitted onto Starbucks coffee cups.

Just to make it clear: that is nearly 9 tons of plastic lids. Every day.

In a full year that’s over 3,218 tons of plastic lids.

That is a staggering number. And I think I’m being conservative in my estimate.

At any rate, Starbucks has a publicly stated goal of increasing their number of stores from 16,875 to over 40,000. Think of the numbers then.

It seems to me that if Starbucks reconsidered their plastic lid policy and started asking customers “Do you need a lid on that coffee?” they would start using a lot less lids.

And there would be thousands of tons less plastic used and thrown away.

How much plastic does the world produce each year? Over 250 billion pounds worth.

A staggering amount ends up in the oceans. Scientists have noted that the amount of plastic in the sea has tripled since the 1960s.

It is estimated that 20% of the plastic comes from ships or offshore platforms; the rest is blown off from the land, washed up through storm drains, or just plain intentionally dumped.

The plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller particles. It doesn’t biodegrade; it just gets ingested into the food chain.

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The Green Man Blog is written to spread environmental awareness and appreciation of the natural world around us. Thank you for visiting! Stay green, support the organic movement, and be sure to visit www.greenmantshirts.com for the best in organic cotton and bamboo t shirts!

Polystyrene is everywhere. You find it in coffee cups, foam egg cartons, disposable utensils, packing peanuts, and so on.

The problem with polystyrene is that once here it never goes away.

Polystyrene is not biodegradable. We throw away hundreds of thousands of tons of the stuff every year.

California alone produces 377,579 tons of polystyrene annually.

Some of the waste ends up in landfills, and much of it ends up in the environment.

It never goes away, never biodegrades; it just accumulates.

But maybe a new type of polystyrene will fix all that. It has been developed by a Canadian firm and is supposed to biodegrade in 3 years.

The foam degrades several ways: through exposure to oxygen, heat, ultra-violet light, or mechanical stress, and it turns into a fine powder as it degrades.

Then the powder is digested by bacteria and other micro-organisms.

Let's hope this new technology works. It gets tiresome to keep seeing all that plastic trash around.

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The Green Man Blog is written to spread environmental awareness and appreciation of the natural world around us. Thank you for visiting! Stay green, support the organic movement, and be sure to visit www.greenmantshirts.com for the best in organic cotton and bamboo t shirts!

This is the trash can next to the mail boxes at my apartment complex. Every day it fills up with junk mail.

Studies show that 44% of junk mail never gets read. So what's the cycle here? From printer to post office to trash can?

How much effort and energy is expended printing all this? How much effort and energy is expended delivering it all?

And after all that effort and energy, it's not even read. It just gets thrown away. And then how much effort and energy is expended dealing with it as trash?

My apartment complex is just one of millions. What's the true cost here?

I can't even calculate the numbers, but I have a suggestion. After printing all this junk mail, how about the printer people just throw it all away in the dumpster? That way they have the joy and fun of actually printing it, but no one gets bothered by it. That would at least save the time and cost of delivering it.

Yes, I'm kidding. But we can do something about it. Stop it at its source by opting out on the junk mail lists. It takes a little effort on your part, but it's worth it.

The Federal Trade Commission has a flyer on this issue. Get it here.

Follow their advice on how to remove yourself from the junk mail lists. And by the way, don't pay for any "service" that for a "small fee" will get you off the lists. It isn't necessary.

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The Green Man Blog is written to spread environmental awareness and appreciation of the natural world around us. Thank you for visiting! Stay green, support the organic movement, and be sure to visit www.greenmantshirts.com for the best in organic cotton and bamboo t shirts!

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The other day I made a 97 cent purchase of a paintbrush, refused the offer of a plastic bag, and received a printed receipt that took more time to spit out from the printer than it took to buy the paintbrush.

The paper receipt must have run 10 inches long.

Now, it had the usual numbers on it but also various offers, advertising, whatever. It went into the trashcan at the door as I left.

I felt guilty, of course. It's a waste. I know that 40% of most landfills are comprised of paper, and the last thing we need is more paper in the landfills.

But I wish more companies followed the Starbucks example. They ask if you need a receipt or not. Couldn't more companies do that? I know many people want and need a receipt. But many don't. It would be a start to cutting down unnecessary paper, don't you think?

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The Green Man Blog is written to spread environmental awareness and appreciation of the natural world around us. Thank you for visiting! Stay green, support the organic movement, and be sure to visit www.greenmantshirts.com for the best in organic cotton and bamboo t shirts!