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:

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 Tell Nestle: Solve your single-use plastic problem. Click here to sign the petition. 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: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/nestle-plastics?t=9&akid=32445%2E3130208%2EeHRBDC - Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Alejandra Borunda, "This young whale died with 88 pounds of plastic in its stomach," National Geographic, March 18, 2019. Ivy Schlegel and Maddeleine Cobbying, "Nestle: A giant plastic problem," Greenpeace, April 2019. Sarah Kaplan, "By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans, study says," The Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2016. Schlegel and Cobbying, "Nestle: A giant plastic problem." Ibid. Ibid. Laura Parker, "A whopping 91% of plastic isn't recycled," National Geographic, Dec. 20, 2018.

Check out Trump's proposed budget cuts. This affects our quality of life as Americans!

I've been up all night studying Trump's proposed budget cuts. And it's shocking! We need to keep on top of what is going on in our government.

"Trump’s budget takes a sledgehammer to the EPA. Eliminates more than 50 programs and 3,200 jobs lost. Discontinues funding for international climate-change programs. Cuts funding for the Office of Research and Development in half. Cuts funding for the Superfund cleanup program and the Office of Enforcement and Compliance."

The cuts to the EPA alone eliminates more than 3,200 jobs. Now compare that to the 40 jobs the Nestle bottling facility brings to Phoenix (to bottle up AZ. CAP water) or the 400 Green Valley miners who were let go when the mine was deemed "not profitable enough."

"Climate change and ocean research would suffer sharp cuts in the Trump budget proposal for the Commerce Department, which aims for a reduction of 16 percent, or $1.5 billion, much of that targeted at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Commerce cuts would eliminate $ 250 million in coastal research programs that prepare communities for rising seas and worsening storms, including the popular $73 million Sea Grant program, which works with universities in 33 states.

But scientists, including a former NOAA administrator, Jane Lubchenco, strongly criticized the proposed cuts when they were reported on previously, saying that they would harm coastal readiness in the face of rising seas and damage states that rely on these funds to manage their shorelines."

"The EDUCATION DEPARTMENT faces a 14 percent cut under the Trump administration budget, which would downsize or eliminate a raft of grants, including for teacher training, afterschool programs, and aid to low-income and minority college students. The cuts would be coupled with a historic investment — $1.4 billion — in charter schools, private schools and other school-choice initiatives."

This is just the tip of the sinking iceberg. Check out the proposed budget cuts for yourself - then speak out! This is about our quality of life as Americans: our education, our health, our arts, our public lands and national parks, our animals, our rivers and streams, even the water we drink and the air we breath. This is about the science and innovations that make us a world power. This is about being a compassionate nation. This is about taking care of our own - our elderly and our children. This is about protecting freedom and the American Dream. The American Dream is providing a BETTER LIFE for our children.

It's time we asked ourselves, "What makes America great?"And fight like the dickens for it.