New Report Details Dangers of Plastics, Microplastics

Calls plastics recycling 'more of a public relations scheme by the plastics industry than an actual waste management strategy.'

Plastic trash is dumped at the Mbeubeuss landfill on January 5, 2016 in Dakar, Senegal, where a new law prohibits the use of certain plastic bags. The implementation of the measure was launched on January 4, 2016 in Dakar in a campaign for a period of one week in an effort to clean up cities and raise awareness of the need to rid the environment of these pollutants. AFP PHOTO / SEYLLOU / AFP / SEYLLOU Photo credit should read SEYLLOU/AFP/Getty Images

The medical nonprofit Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI) has issued a research report outlining how plastics and microplastics may jeopardize both human health and the natural world.

Released Jan. 11, the report highlights a few staggering statistics on plastics use. Notably, the plastic generated every year weighs in at roughly 380 million metric tons, not much less than the total weight of every human being on the planet.