How Many Plastic Water Bottles Are Thrown Away Every Day?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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Each day, people in the U.S. throw away

more than 60 million

plastic water bottles, most of which end up in landfills or as litter in America’s streets, parks and waterways. Americans throw away 35 billion empty water bottles a year. Of those, only 12 percent are recycled.

How many plastic water bottles are thrown away every hour?

Americans use

2.5 million

plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away! It takes about 500 years for the average-sized plastic water bottle to decompose and about 1,000 years for plastic grocery sacks to degrade. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

How many plastic bottles are thrown away every second in the US?

Around 60 million plastic bottles end up in landfills every single day, and Americans alone send more than 38 billion water bottles to landfills every year, the equivalent of 912 million gallons of oil. That means that

1,500 plastic bottles

are thrown away every second of the day.

How many water bottles are thrown away each second?

An estimate

1,500 plastic bottles

end up as waste in landfills or thrown in the ocean every second.

How many water bottles are thrown away a day?

Each day, people in the U.S. throw away

more than 60 million

plastic water bottles, most of which end up in landfills or as litter in America’s streets, parks and waterways. Americans throw away 35 billion empty water bottles a year. Of those, only 12 percent are recycled.

How many bottles of water are sold every day?

Americans go through a startling amount of bottled water each day, breaking down to around 1,500 bottles consumed every second. That adds up to 90,000 every hour and nearly

2.2 million

each day. 13. How much bottled water is consumed globally?

How many water bottles are recycled each month?

That’s

40 billion per month

and 1.3 billion per year. Only 9% of plastic is recycled (this number is declining) due to China no longer accepting US plastics. More than $1 billion worth of plastic is wasted each year. The recommendation to drink 8 glasses of water a day equals about $.

How many plastic bottles are recycled annually?


Less than 3 million tons

of plastic bottles are recycled each year around the country. While that may seem like a lot of plastic, that amount represents less than 8% of the total plastic waste produced in America.

How many plastic water bottles are used each year 2020?

We use a CRAZY number. Like, an unfathomable, almost unbelievable, wild amount of plastic bottles.

481.6 billion

bottles were used worldwide in a single year. That’s the number from 2018, according to Reuters Drowning in Plastic (check out the whole feature if you haven’t already).

How much plastic waste is in the World 2020?

Globally to date, there is about

8.3 billion tons

of plastic in the world – some 6.3 billion tons of that is trash.

What percentage of plastic waste is water bottles?

Today, plastic bottles and jars represent about

75 percent

of all plastic containers, by weight, in the United States, according to the Plastics Industry Association.

What percentage of plastic water bottles are recycled?

The recycling rate of PET bottles and jars was

29.1 percent

in 2018, and the rate for HDPE natural bottles was 29.3 percent in 2018.

How much plastic is thrown away?

You can’t manage what you don’t measure

Of the 8.3 billion metric tons that has been produced,

6.3 billion metric tons

has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority—79 percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter.

How much single use plastic is thrown away each year?

Today, we produce about

300 million tonnes

of plastic waste every year. That’s nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population.

How much plastic is sold each day?

In the UK

38.5m

plastic bottles are used every day – only just over half make it to recycling, while more than 16m are put into landfill, burnt or leak into the environment and oceans each day.

How many people use plastic water bottles worldwide?

The bottled water market globally is rapidly growing with approximate

600 million households

consuming bottled water in 2018. That’s more than 100 billion gallons (391 Billion litres) of water per year or 1 million bottles per minute. As a consequence our oceans are literary swimming in plastic.

How much recycling actually gets recycled 2020?

Data shows

84 – 96%

of kerbside recycling is recycled, and the remaining 4 – 16% that goes to landfill is primarily a result of the wrong thing going in the wrong bin. A small amount may currently also be disposed to landfill whilst waste facilities are transitioning to new markets for recyclables.

How often can plastic be recycled?


Most plastics can only be recycled once

, at which point they are normally converted into clothing or some other commodity which can’t be recycled again. This means that once the second item reaches the end of its lifespan, so too does the original plastic – and it ends up in a landfill.

What percentage of plastic is recycled 2020?

Plastic. This will likely come as no surprise to longtime readers, but according to National Geographic, an astonishing 91 percent of plastic doesn’t actually get recycled. This means that only around

9 percent

is being recycled.

How many plastic bags are thrown away each day?

Currently 100 billion plastic bags pass through the hands of U.S. consumers every year—

almost one bag per person each day

. Laid end-to-end, they could circle the equator 1,330 times.

How much waste is produced each day?

The world generates at least

3.5 million tons

of plastic and other solid waste a day, 10 times the amount a century ago, according to World Bank researchers. The U.S. is the king of trash, producing a world-leading 250 million tons a year—roughly 4.4 pounds of trash per person per day.

David Martineau
Author
David Martineau
David is an interior designer and home improvement expert. With a degree in architecture, David has worked on various renovation projects and has written for several home and garden publications. David's expertise in decorating, renovation, and repair will help you create your dream home.