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John,

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Sometimes, it's easiest to miss the things that are in plain sight.

The Stone Age and the Iron Age are long gone. We now live in the Plastic Age. Look away from this email and odds are, you'll see something made of plastic within a few seconds.

With all this massive plastic use comes massive plastic waste. Here's just how serious our plastic pollution problem has become:

Each year, the United States produces 35.7 million tons of plastic waste.[2]

That's equivalent to more than 200 pounds of plastic waste for every single man, woman and child in America. And as plastic production increases, that number is likely to keep going up.

With so much plastic being produced, you might wonder about the plan for disposing of all of it. The answer: There isn't one.

Plastic producers often create the impression that most plastic is recycled. However, the vast majority of plastic ends up in incinerators, landfills, or other parts of the environment, instead of recycling facilities.[4]

Many types of plastic, such as PVC piping, plastic bags and polystyrene foam, are difficult to recycle and generally not accepted by curbside recycling programs.

Our overreliance on single-use plastic -- that is, plastic that's designed to be used once then thrown out -- is one of the main reasons that so much plastic ends up as pollution.[6]

If we use plastic -- a substance that lasts basically forever -- to create sandwich bags and candy wrappers, then we're creating centuries of waste for almost no benefit. That's why PIRG is working to cut down on plastic production, especially the most wasteful single-use plastics.

Thank you for making our work possible,

Faye Park
President

P.S. Want to do more to cut down on plastic? You can power our advocacy with a donation today.
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1. "Plastics: Material-Specific Data," Environmental Protection Agency, November 21, 2024.
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2. "Plastics: Material-Specific Data," Environmental Protection Agency, November 21, 2024.
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3. Kelly Leviker, Celeste Meiffren-Swango, "Are plastics recyclable?" PIRG, March 1, 2025.
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4. Kelly Leviker, Celeste Meiffren-Swango, "Are plastics recyclable?" PIRG, March 1, 2025.
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5. "Plastic pollution," UN Environment Programme, Last accessed June 4, 2025.
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6. Victoria Foluke Arijeniwa et al. "Closing the loop: A framework for tackling single-use plastic waste in the food and beverage industry through circular economy- a review," Science Direct, May 2024.
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U.S. PIRG
Main Office: 1543 Wazee St., Suite 460, Denver, CO 80202, (303) 801-0582
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