A dump-truck of plastic make it into the world’s ocean every minute. Plastic drink bottles are a large contributor to this waste, including Coke bottles, says Greenpeace.
There is a growing swell of public support for tighter regulations on plastic packaging. This Thursday, June 30th – with a giant albatross sculpture – Greenpeace Aotearoa will deliver a petition signed by almost 100,000 people calling on the Government to ban single-use plastic bottles and incentivise reusable and refillable alternatives.
Arriving at Parliament to launch ‘Plastic Free July’, the impressive sculpture has a steel frame filled with reclaimed plastic bottles and has a ten-metre wing span.
Greenpeace Aotearoa plastics campaigner, Juressa Lee says “Plastic pollution has reached a crisis point. Toxic microplastics are in the water we drink, the food that we eat, and the air that we breathe. The need for firm action by Government to protect people and nature from plastic pollution has never been more urgent.”
“Companies like Coca-Cola are selling one billion throwaway plastic bottles every year in Aotearoa, and show no sign of stopping. The Government must follow the successful plastic bag ban with a ban on single-use plastic bottles.
In May, Coca-Cola unveiled new bottles with caps that don’t come off in a bid to take control of worrying recycling issues. Critics of the company were unimpressed.
Greenpeace say plastic bottles are one of the worst culprits in the plastic pollution crisis but are not covered by existing government plans to phase out unnecessary plastic.
“As well as being a threat to human health, plastic kills wildlife. The toroa represented by our sculpture washed ashore and died from starvation after swallowing a plastic bottle”, says Lee. “The huge numbers of people who signed this petition show that the people of Aotearoa want a ban on plastic bottles. The alternatives exist, we’re just missing the political will from this Government to stand up to the likes of Coca-Cola and break free from plastic”.
