Plastic Waste Calculator

Per week

Plastic water bottles

22 g each. Range 0–30.

Plastic grocery bags

5.5 g each. Range 0–20.

Takeout containers

25 g each. Range 0–15.

Coffee cup lids

2.8 g each. Range 0–20.

Single-use straws

0.4 g each. Range 0–30.

Plastic-wrapped snacks or produce

3.5 g each (avg). Range 0–30.

Per year

Disposable razors

15 g each. Range 0–50.

Plastic toothbrushes

18 g each. Dentists say 4. Range 1–12.

I reuse grocery bags as trash bags. Counts each bag for 30% less plastic, since it replaces a trash bag you'd buy anyway.

Your annual plastic waste

12.1 kg

26.6 lb per year · 33.1 g per day

How you stack up

-76% vs global average (50 kg / yr). -91% vs US per-capita average (130 kg / yr).

Over a 50-year life

604 kg total — about 0.60 metric tons.

Where it ends up

Roughly 1.69 kg of your annual plastic ends up ocean-bound (~14% of global plastic waste reaches waterways, per the Pew / SystemIQ 2020 model). Recycling enough bottles to offset your total would take 549 bottles.

Top 3 reducers

Eliminate plastic water bottles

save ~5.72 kg / yr

Eliminate takeout containers

save ~2.60 kg / yr

Eliminate plastic-wrapped snacks

save ~1.82 kg / yr

Unit weights from manufacturer datasheets and the EPA 2018 Advancing Sustainable Materials Management Report. US per-capita figure (~130 kg/yr) from the 2020 National Academy of Sciences study; global average (~50 kg/yr) from the 2024 OECD Global Plastics Outlook. Ocean-bound fraction (~14%) from the 2020 Pew / SystemIQ "Breaking the Plastic Wave" model. Numbers are estimates — useful for prioritization, not accounting.