Thursday, May 2, 2019

Tell Nestle: Solve your single-use plastic problem SOONER

Greenpeace divided up plastic trash on the beach by companies responsible
The petition to Nestle CEO Ulf Mark Schneider reads:
"Stop choking our oceans with single-use plastics. Set a target and timeline to dramatically reduce single-use packaging and invest in large-scale alternatives focused on refill and reuse."
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
Plastic pollution is a global crisis. Companies like Nestle are driving that crisis. Nestle sells a billion products a day, with 98% of them wrapped in single-use packaging.2 Unless Nestle and its peers change course, our oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050.3  Eighty-eight pounds of plastic. That's what scientists discovered in the stomach of an emaciated young whale that died in March. With its stomach full of plastic waste and nothing else, the whale had starved to death.1
Nestle used 1.7 million tons of plastic packaging last year.4 Much of that is single-use packaging – wrappers and bottles that provide momentary convenience and then exist in our world for lifetimes. One study that analyzed garbage in 42 countries found Nestle products to be the third most often recovered pieces of ocean trash.5
Thanks to pressure from our friends at Greenpeace and the Break Free from Plastic Coalition, Nestle is starting to make promises about cleaning up its act. Nestle even pledged to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.6
The problem is that making plastic recyclable doesn't solve anything. Over 90% of plastics are not recycled.7 We need to actually reduce the amount of plastic waste we produce, period. But Nestle is hiding its failure to address single-use plastics by focusing on recycling instead.
Last year CREDO members and other activists successfully pushed Starbucks to commit to eliminating plastic in its cups. We can do the same thing with Nestle. Nestle has the market power to shift the way people use plastic all over the world. It needs to take responsibility for driving the plastic pollution crisis and act now.
Tell Nestle: Solve your single-use plastic problem. Click the link below to sign the petition:
- Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
References:
  1. Alejandra Borunda, "This young whale died with 88 pounds of plastic in its stomach," National Geographic, March 18, 2019.
  2. Ivy Schlegel and Maddeleine Cobbying, "Nestle: A giant plastic problem," Greenpeace, April 2019.
  3. Sarah Kaplan, "By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans, study says," The Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2016.
  4. Schlegel and Cobbying, "Nestle: A giant plastic problem."
  5. Ibid.
  6. Ibid.
  7. Laura Parker, "A whopping 91% of plastic isn't recycled," National Geographic, Dec. 20, 2018.

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