Anonymous,

Floating toothbrushes, plastic children's toys, and bits of plastic in their dinner.

These are just a few of the things that ultra-long-distance swimmer Ben Lecomte and his crew have seen as he swims across the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- a gyre of plastic trash and microplastic spanning an area more than twice the size of Texas.1,2

We can't clear the water of plastic for Ben tomorrow. But U.S. PIRG is working to move our country beyond plastic for the long haul. Help us eliminate more single-use plastic by donating to support our Beyond Plastic campaign and all our work in the public interest today.

Ben Lecomte described what he saw as "an underwater smog of plastic."

And every year it gets worse, as 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter our oceans annually via landfills and rivers.3 The United States accounts for far more than our fair share of that trash, with the average American throwing away 234 pounds of plastic garbage every year.4

A lot of the plastic "stuff" polluting our waters is used only once before being tossed, yet it will remain in the environment for hundreds of years.5

We have to stop being part of the plastic problem, and start being part of the solution. Donate now to help us put reduce plastic pollution and stand up for the public interest.

Our network has a long history of tackling the toughest waste problems. We helped pass some of the nation's first bottle bills, which remain some of our most effective pro-recycling laws in the country.

Now U.S. PIRG and our national network are running statewide campaigns from coast to coast to ban plastic foam cups and takeout containers and single-use plastic shopping bags.

We're putting this issue in the media spotlight across the country, going door-to-door to educate the public, and winning new laws from coast to coast.

But with 8 million tons of plastic trash entering our oceans every year, there's so much more to do.

Let's not force a future Ben Lecomte to swim ten years or 50 years from now through a sea polluted by plastic stuff that we used for a few minutes and then tossed away.

Make an impact. Donate today.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. Esha Chabra, "Paddling in plastic: meet the man swimming the Pacific garbage patch," The Guardian, July 31, 2019.
2. Kevin Loria, "The giant garbage vortex in the Pacific Ocean is over twice the size of Texas -- here's what it looks like," Business Insider, September 8, 2018.
3. Laura Parker, "Eight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year," National Geographic, February 5, 2015.
4. Emily Holden, "US produces far more waste and recycles far less of it than other developed countries," The Guardian, July 3, 2019.
5. Mike Wright, Ashley Kirk, Mark Molloy, Emma Mills, "The stark truth about how long your plastic footprint will last on the planet," The Telegraph, January 10, 2018.