I work with bicycles all day, and the warehouse I currently work in (it changes periodically) is honestly the biggest waster of plastic I’ve ever seen. Bigger waste than individually wrapped plastic straws.

When pallets come in, they are wrapped in plastic shrink wrap to keep them from shifting.

Then they’re processed on one side to be stored in the shelves, cutting the plastic off.

When they get picked, they’re wrapped in plastic as the pallet gets taller, which just gets cut off before being sorted for their destinations.

And once again, they get wrapped in plastic.

So about 5lbs or more of plastic wrap per pallet, 4 or more times.

And if they get stored for more than a few minutes anywhere without handling they have to be wrapped again.

Thousands of pallets go through this one warehouse daily. They have a compactor going 24/7 to manage all the plastic waste separate from their cardboard box crusher.

I used to feel bad about tiny pieces of plastic on items I get. Not so much anymore.

Actually most of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch come from fishing and and fish farming/aqua-culture.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-16529-0