Estimate annual plastic consumption and the reduction from switching to reusables.
Packaging usually dominates plastic weight even though bottles and bags dominate item count. Only the single-use items are readily replaceable, which is why the reduction applies to those alone. Actual recycling rates are far below collection rates because much collected plastic is contaminated or economically unviable to process.
Plastic Footprint
Annual plastic = item counts × unit weights + packaging weight
Annual plastic = item counts × unit weights + packaging weight Packaging usually dominates plastic weight even though bottles and bags dominate item count. Only the single-use items are readily replaceable, which is why the reduction applies to those alone.
Actual recycling rates are far below collection rates because much collected plastic is contaminated or economically unviable to process.
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Single-use bottles per week, Plastic bags per week, Packaging plastic per month, Share actually recycled, Share switched to reusables. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.