How Much Plastic Does The Average Person Use A Day

We all know that the world equally a whole is producing a huge corporeality of plastic waste material each twelvemonth.

But how much plastic does the average individual use in a mean solar day?

There are two master ways to await at this question:

Plastic packaging waste thrown abroad directly (what you lot put in the bin each 24-hour interval)
The overall per capita plastic waste (including waste from industry and fishing, which nosotros are indirectly responsible for)

To try to respond this question, nosotros'll look at both approaches and so bring them together to summarise things at the terminate.

The reply to this question also depends a lot on where y'all live—wealthier countries tend to produce more plastic waste.

How Much Plastic Does the Average Person Throw Away Each Day?

Information from Everyday Plastic study suggests that the U.k. throws away 295 billion pieces of plastic a year, which would work at around 12 pieces per person per twenty-four hour period.

This report was produced by "boilerplate British gars" Daniel Webb and geoscientist Dr. Julie Schneider.

In 2017, Webb nerveless every slice of plastic he would have otherwise thrown away for an entire year.

The full was four,490 pieces, which extrapolated to the whole U.k. population would equal 295 billion pieces of plastic a yr.

A 'slice' could exist a milk canteen cap, the seal, or the canteen itself. Lots of items are equanimous of several plastic pieces.

93% of plastic waste was single-use packaging, 67% was from food and 47% was made from unrecyclable plastic motion picture. seventy% of the plastic thrown away wasn't recyclable in 2017.

Daniel Webb produced 29 kg of plastic waste over the grade of the twelvemonth (79 1000 a solar day), while Dr. Julie Schneider produced 34.iv kg (94 g a day).

These figures are close to estimates of European averages. According to European Union figures, the average EU denizen produces 31 kg of plastic packaging per year, or 85 chiliad of plastic packaging waste matter per person per day.

How Much Plastic Is Used Per Capita in a Day?

According to data from this study published in Science, the UK produces 215 1000 of plastic waste material per day per person.

This data looked at plastic waste matter in total, including waste matter from manufacture, agriculture, fishing then on.

Therefore, this doesn't mean that each of usa is actually physically throwing 215 g of plastic waste in the bin each solar day.

To visualise how much plastic 215 grams is, here is how yous would go to that weight if you just used one product all day:

22 plastic bottles – A 500-ml water bottle weighs 10 grams. 215 grams would be the equivalent of about 22 plastic bottles.
39 plastic shopping bags – A plastic shopping bag weighs 5.5 grams, and then our daily plastic waste product would be the equivalent of about 39 plastic bags.

Here are daily plastic usage figures from some other countries for comparing:

United States – 335 g per person per day
Mainland china – 121 yard per person per mean solar day
India – x grand per person per day

These figures are from 2010, so the figure in 2019 could exist quite dissimilar. The original figures are unlikely to be 100% accurate, but are a useful rough guide.

Summary

To summarise, the all-time data we could find suggests the following:

The average person in the UK throws abroad 85 chiliad of plastic packaging waste twenty-four hours. This is composed of 12 separate pieces of plastic.
The UK produces 215 thou of plastic waste per person per solar day. This includes all waste matter from businesses, industry and agriculture as well as what you physically throw away yourself.

Read our guide to reducing your plastic use for some tips on using less!

Laurence is the founder and editor of Naturaler. He'due south been working in the online globe for over v years and is trying to live a more natural and eco-friendly lifestyle every day.