Did you know …

From daily tasks to our most unusual needs, plastics have increasingly provided the performance characteristics that fulfill consumer needs at many levels. But enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times. 50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away. 46 percent of plastics float and it can drift for years before eventually concentrating in the ocean gyres. These swirling convergences in the oceans contain billions of pounds of plastics. 80 percent of pollution enters the ocean from the land. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located in the North Pacific Gyre off the coast of California and is the largest garbage site in the world. This floating mass of plastic is twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life 6 to 1. One million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastics in the ocean. Reduce — Reuse — Rethink.

Information provided by ReGroup, a nonprofit educational group, formed in 1989 to develop public awareness ofwastereduction, reuse and recycling benefits on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. ReGroup meets every third Monday of the month at6:30p.m. at Hope Community Resources Community Center on Princeton Avenue off Kalifornsky Beach Road. Find ReGroupatregroupalaska.org or contact at regroupkenaipeninsula@gmail.com.