Plastic Footprint Calculator
How much plastic you use in a year, what fraction is genuinely recycled, and what the avoidable share looks like.
The count is straightforward: items per week times 52 times the weight of each.
How the plastic footprint calculator works
The count is straightforward: items per week times 52 times the weight of each. What is not straightforward is where it goes. Global recycling rates for plastic are around 9%; most of what goes in a recycling bin is landfilled, incinerated or exported.
That is why the avoidable column matters more than the recycled one. Single-use bottles, bags and coffee cups are the categories with easy substitutes and the highest volumes.
Formula: annual mass = Σ(items per week × 52 × grams each)
Worked examples
| Inputs | Annual plastic | Note |
|---|---|---|
| A typical household member | 13.42 kg | about 12 kg a year |
| No single-use bottles | 8.22 kg | over 5 kg less |
| Heavy packaging use | 21.22 kg | packaging becomes the largest share |
FAQFrequently asked questions
How much plastic does a person use a year?
Estimates vary widely by country. This page computes yours from your own item counts rather than an average.
How much plastic is actually recycled?
Globally around 9%. Even in countries with good collection, much of what enters a recycling bin is contaminated, exported or burned.
Which items matter most?
Bottles, bags and takeaway cups — high volume, easy substitutes, and rarely recycled in practice.
Is recycling worth doing?
Yes, but as the third option. Reducing and reusing avoid the material entirely; recycling only handles what is already made.
What about the emissions?
Producing plastic emits roughly 6 kg CO₂e per kilogram, before any transport or disposal. It is a fossil-fuel product.
Where these figures come from
- UK DESNZ / DEFRA — Greenhouse gas reporting: conversion factors — the flight, fuel and waste emission factors used here
- Scarborough et al. (2014), Climatic Change — Dietary greenhouse gas emissions — the per-diet daily emission figures
- US EPA — Technical Assistance Document for the Reporting of Daily Air Quality (AQI) — the PM2.5 breakpoints the air quality calculator uses
- US EPA — Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator — the official US equivalency factors
Last checked: September 2026. Factors are taken from published government and peer-reviewed sources, each named on the page with its year.