“Packaging is the world’s biggest use of plastic, unsurprisingly: say the word ‘plastic’ and people picture a plastic bottle or food wrapper. **Forty-four per cent of the world’s plastic goes towards packaging**. The rest goes to buildings, textiles, transport and other consumer appliances. And when we look at plastic waste, not plastic use, packaging becomes even more dominant. This is because the ‘lifetime’ of packaging is very short, typically half a year. We use it once or twice (if it’s recycled) then its life is over. This is different from uses like construction: the plastics we use to build and retrofit our houses and offices can be there for more than three decades. In cars, for around 13 years. In electronics, around eight years. ([Location 3666](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C3X6X695&location=3666))” --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[statistics]], [[pollution]], [[plastics]], **Source** -- [[260103133118 - B - Not the End of the World]]