It’s astonishing to think that 3 out of every 4 people. Even have admitted to creating litter in the past 5 years. All with people aged 18-34 the most likely to litter. Research by National Geographic indicates that it would take 67 ships a full year to clean up a mere 1% of all litter at the bottom of the North Pacific Ocean.

It’s frightening to contemplate about rubbish. So that’s the harsh reality. For  we have created for ourselves through our attitude to litter. Discovering these sort of statistics has really woken me up. All to the urgent need to take action. Especially which begins by educating others as to the poisonous consequences of litter.

It’s because ‘The Litter Crisis in Europe’ is seriously understated. Finally, a couple of quick facts for you:

1. The total cost of cleaning up rubbish or litter in Europe is estimated at €10 to 13 billion per year.
2. Cleaning up Europe’s towns and countryside costs an average of €25 per person. Consequently that’s per year.
3. As well,,road litter in Europe clean-up costs taxpayers €1 billion per year. I mean all throughout Europe.
4. 4 in 5 pieces of marine litter in Europe comes from land.

Most noteworthy, then NPR reports further about microplastics. Surprisingly high amounts of microplastic are raining down on a remote and seemingly pristine part of France’s Pyrenees mountains, according to scientists who say such particles could potentially be floating everywhere.

Microplastics are fragments smaller than a fifth of an inch. So small that they have broken down from larger pieces of plastic.These have been found in rivers, lakes, the oceans and in agricultural soil.

But very few studies of wind-borne microplastic have ever been done. This one found that the air over these mountains has about as much floating plastic pollution as the air over Paris or Dongguan. Dongguan is consequently a large industrial city in China.

In conclusion, here’s an infographic from https://www.cleaningservicesgroup.co.uk/ that shows litter in Europe. All especially what recycling does. It’s more than throwing in a bin.