We’ve all seen the devastating images of pristine beaches covered with plastic waste, of turtles and other marine life killed by ingesting bags, bottles, and other debris. But how much do you know about the plastic problem?
These is no such thing as ‘away’
Many of us have read the frightening statistics about microplastics getting into the food we eat and the water we drink. And while making efforts to reduce our individual plastic footprint is important, we’re operating in a broken system, one clogged with trash, and the people controlling the machine won’t turn it off. Worse still, some of them are even looking to ramp up production.
The good news is that together we can fix this.
The Break Free From Plastic movement is campaigning globally to stop plastic pollution at its source – the corporations that have created it and the governments that are failing to regulate against it.
If we are going to tackle the behemoth that is plastic pollution, at the speed we need to, we’ve got to go right to the root. And that means getting big corporations to take responsibility for their rubbish, and telling global governments to put the rules in place to protect our planet.
Here in Aotearoa we’re making real progress. Together we won a ban on single-use plastic bags, and the Government has recently launched a plan to phase-out many “hard to recycle” single-use plastics. That’s a strong signal that our efforts are paying off, but we need more.
We’re calling for a ban on single-use plastic bottles because they are one of the worst culprits.
It’s estimated that we toss away more than a billion plastic bottles here in New Zealand every year, yet the Government’s plan makes no mention of them.
This plastic ends up clogging our landfills, getting shipped offshore and incinerated in places like Malaysia, where it harms human health, or it winds up on our coast, causing harm to wildlife like the toroa (albatross) and breaking down into tiny toxic pieces which end up in our food.
Call on the NZ Government to ban unnecessary single-use plastic bottles* in NZ, and to incentivise reusable and refillable alternatives.
