How much plastic is hiding in your holiday gifts?

Get an estimate of the plastic waste behind your gifts’ packaging and shipping materials + a quick way to make up for it.

Takes under a minute.

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How many gifts are you buying this holiday season?

In many high-income countries, the average person throws away over 100 kg (about 5,000 bottles!) of plastic waste every year. OECD Global Plastics Outlook (2019) United States generated ~221 kg of plastic waste per person; OECD Europe ~114 kg per person. View source. i

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How many of those gifts will be shipped or delivered, instead of handed over in person?

Roughly 4 out of every 10 pieces of plastic waste are just packaging and shipping materials. Our World in Data, using OECD Global Plastics Outlook data (2024) ~40% of global plastic waste comes from packaging; 37% in the US, 38% in Europe, 45% in China. View source. i

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Most of your gifts are about this size

Around the holidays, the average household’s trash goes up by about 25%, mostly from extra shopping, packaging and food. US EPA, “Greening the Season” (Region 9 snapshot) Household waste increases ~25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, adding about 1 million extra tons. View source. i

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Your estimated impact

0.0 kg of plastic

Your gifts’ packaging and shipping equals approximately 0 plastic bottles.

1 kg of plastic waste is roughly 50 plastic bottles. Bottle to Kilogram Research Project (2023) Estimate used: 50 standard 500 ml PET bottles ≈ 1 kg of plastic waste. Methodology video. i

Plastic Bank member Sulistia collecting plastic at Kedonganan Beach in Bali

Join us to recover 50 bottles for free.

Plastic Bank is the largest global bottle deposit movement in history, recovering more than eight billion bottles to date. You support collectors in the areas where it matters the most. They earn secure income in exchange. It all gets verified immediately in our blockchain-backed system.