September 21, 2018 (VANCOUVER) – Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestle Canada and other big corporations pledged to help reduce plastic pollution in support of the Ocean Plastics Charter, a campaign endorsed by five of the G7 industrialized nations. In June, Canada, the UK, Italy, Germany, and France, along with the EU, endorsed the Ocean Plastics Charter.

Yesterday, on the second day of the G7 ministerial meeting in Halifax, Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announced “a new partnership with businesses” to reduce plastic waste. Other backers include Loblaw, Walmart, IKEA, Dow Chemicals, BASF Canada and A&W Canada.

In advance of the G7 meeting, Minister McKenna called on Canadians to join beach cleanups across the country in the week leading up to World Cleanup Day on September 15th. On this same day, Greenpeace Canada, as part of the global BreakFreeFromPlastic movement conducted Plastic Polluters Brand Audits of plastic trash collected from five cleanups across Canada. These Brand Audits, that were conducted on five continents by numerous organizations, take typical cleanups and waste audits one step further by investigating and identifying the companies responsible for the branded plastic trash. The results of these audits are being compiled and will be announced on October 2nd. Trash produced by companies such as Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola and other major plastic producers are regularly found in audits around the world.

In response to Thursday’s announcement, Greenpeace Canada’s Head of Oceans and Plastics Sarah King said:

“While a growing number of companies are acknowledging that plastic pollution is a problem, signing on to a voluntary charter that lacks a strong roadmap for reducing single-use plastic production will not begin to tackle these companies’ massive plastic footprints. In our recent cleanup and Plastic Polluters Brand Audit events, trash produced by many of these companies was observed polluting our environments and communities. It’s time companies focus on not producing so much throwaway plastic in the first place, and stop hoping that sponsoring cleanups and more recycling will cut it.”

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Loujain Kurdi, Communications Officer, Greenpeace Canada, +1 (514) 577-6657, [email protected]