In today’s consumer world, plastic is everywhere—from plentiful stores of bottled water to disposable plasticware to the containers that hold our store-bought food. It seems like you can’t go out shopping without running into a good deal of plastic. And while this material is strong, reliable, and undoubtedly useful, we also may have way too much of the stuff that isn’t being reused. Recycling plastic uses much less energy than creating new plastic, and it conserves our valuable resources. Despite this, however, only about a third of our material that could be recycled actually is. Among younger generations, the problem of our overconsumption of plastic has been prevalent for as long as some can remember, and yet little has changed or progressed in alleviating the problem. Statistically, people in the Millennial generation (today’s high schoolers, college students, and young adults) are much less likely to properly recycle plastic and other materials than those in older generations. If you’re of student or Millennial age, take a look at the following infographic—the reality is that younger generations need to start getting serious about recycling, or the future will be robbed of some very valuable resources.

Graphic from OnlineEducation.net