Plastic Police® Beating Plastic Pollution
“On World Environment Day, the message is simple: Reject single-use plastic. Refuse what you can’t re-use. Together, we can chart a path to a cleaner, greener world.”
– UN Secretary-General, António Guterres
Soft plastic waste is a significant problem facing modern society. Local initiative Plastic Police® is addressing this issue by creating a local community engagement model to collect, recycle and reuse soft plastics that end up in landfill and continue to pollute our local land and marine environments.
Tuesday, 5th June 2018 is World Environment Day. This year’s theme is “Beat Plastic Pollution”. Plastic Police® are asking you to become aware AND involved in this significant call to action; for all of us to come together to combat one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time.
Whilst plastic may have some valuable use in our society, our single-use plastic has and will continue to cause significant worldwide environmental consequences, unless we start now and make the change. The change in our everyday lives. We have to start somewhere!
Plastic Police® are asking our communities, corporates, governments, everyone, to take up the challenge to Beat Plastic Pollution. Consider how you can reduce or dispose of your single-use plastic now – next time you go to throw out a plastic bag, don’t throw it in the bin. If plastics can’t be avoided, consider the option to reduce and recycle through supermarket drop-offs or via the Plastic Police® program being piloted in the Hunter. Plastic Police® is currently working with local councils to establish drop off points for your collected soft plastics. Contact your local council and find out more.
As the UN Secretary-General says, “Our world is swamped by harmful plastic waste. Every year, more than 8 million tonnes end up in the oceans. Microplastics in the seas now outnumber stars in our galaxy. If present trends continue, by 2050 our oceans will have more plastic than fish#”. A very scary thought. We just can’t sweep it under the carpet [or the ocean], close our eyes and hope it all goes away.
The message is simple – reject single-use plastic. We have to start somewhere.
Here’s some additional information from the World Environment Day website about how your organisation can get involved and #BeatPlasticPollution:
This year’s World Environment Day provides an opportunity for each of us to embrace the many ways that we can help to combat plastic pollution around the world. And you don’t have to wait until 5th June to act.
There are so many things that we can do – from asking the restaurants you frequent to stop using plastic straws, to bringing your own coffee mug to work, to pressuring your local authorities to improve how they manage your city’s waste. Here are some other specific ideas:
• Bring your own shopping bags to the supermarket
• Pressure food suppliers to use non-plastic packaging
• Refuse plastic cutlery
• Pick up any plastic you see the next time you go for a walk on the beach
What else can we do to tackle this problem? Share your ideas on social media using the hashtag #BeatPlasticPollution and let us know what you’re doing using the hashtag #plasticpolicepartnerships.
