To ensure the health of our oceans, many more companies need to commit to stop using harmful or toxic plastics, to design their packaging for recyclability and to commit to develop a greatly optimized recycling system, with public space recycling to prevent littered packaging from being swept into storm drains, streams, and then oceans. Both of these latter actions were following several years of sustained engagement resulting in a high number of votes for our shareholder proposals. food company agreed to make packaging recyclable by 2025, followed in October by Mondelez International, maker of snack foods like Oreo cookies, agreeing to do the same. In August, KraftHeinz, the third largest U.S. In July, Starbucks responded to our shareholder proposal, supported by nearly 30% of company shares, to call for the phase out of plastic straws. At the same time, Dunkin' Brands publicly committed to a schedule for phasing out foam coffee cups. In 2018, we scored five big victories: McDonald's agreed to stop using polystyrene foam cups globally by year’s end, and made a bold, unprecedented commitment to recycle all packaging in its restaurants worldwide by 2025, as we had been urging. Also, Unilever agreed to make 100% of its packaging recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025. agreed to engage with its suppliers to phase out the use of harmful polystyrene foam for e-commerce packaging. In 2014 Procter & Gamble agreed to make 90% of its packaging recyclable, and Colgate-Palmolive pledged to make all packaging recyclable in three of four operating divisions and to use 50% recycled content, both by 2020. In 2013, following engagement with As You Sow, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Brands agreed to phase out polystyrene foam coffee cups, which can cause havoc with marine life. Our work already has resulted in important advances. Through shareholder engagement, we are challenging brands to do just that - increase the recyclability of packaging, and find ways to dramatically increase the effectiveness and rates of recycling and composting. More than 60 California cities have banned polystyrene foam take out containers, and in December 2015, a federal law banned the use of plastic microbeads in personal care products. But much of the debris that ends up in the ocean due to poor recycling or trash collection programs, especially from public spaces like sidewalks and parks which often lack waste or recycling bins.īrands that are placing plastic packaging on the market need to redesign it to be fully recyclable, and most importantly, take responsibility for dramatic improvements in actual recycling of packaging through producer responsibility programs so it stays out of waterways. See our related video.Ĭitizens and policy makers have begun to respond.
RECYCLED PLASTIC PARTICLES FREE
This video, Plastic Free Oceans, summarizes the ocean plastic pollution problem, As You Sow’s unique shareholder advocacy leadership work to address it, and how your support can enable us to do more.Ī 2014 report by the UN Environment Programme estimated that use of plastic consumer goods causes $75 billion of environmental harm annually to natural ecosystems, including $13 billion specifically to marine ecosystems. After a single use, 95% of plastic packaging material value ends up in landfills, as roadside litter, or in the ocean. Nine of the top 10 items recovered by the Ocean Conservancy’s annual coastal cleanup are some form of packaging or fast food dining supplies. Much of plastic ocean pollution is packaging. Second, plastic particles can absorb toxins already in the water and spread them through the marine food web, and possibly to humans. A recent study found that a quarter of fish at markets in California and Indonesia contain plastic in their guts, mostly in the form of plastic microfibers. Fish, turtles, seabirds, sea lions, and whales can all die a grisly death from eating or becoming entangled in plastic. First, they become lodged in the digestive systems of animals, leading to impairment or death. Plastic particles in oceans harm marine animals in two different ways. Most of it consists of tiny degraded particles swirling in vast gyres spread across 16 million square kilometers of ocean surface, an area the size of the United States and Australia combined. Only a fraction of plastic ocean pollution is visible.
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