Support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act!
47,068 signatures toward our 75,000 Goal
Sponsor: Free The Ocean
Plastic pollution has become a full-blown crisis and without action now, it's going to get much worse!
The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act has officially been reintroduced in congress - it’s the most comprehensive plastic pollution bill EVER and if passed, would be game-changing for the health of people, animals, and the planet.
The numbers around plastic pollution are staggering:
- 380 million metric tons of plastic are produced globally each year.
- Only 7% of all plastic is recycled with the rest is burned or ends up in landfills, rivers and the ocean.
- Every minute, a garbage truck's worth of plastic enters the ocean at a rate that could triple by 2040.
- Plastic kills a million seabirds and an estimated 100,000 marine animals (whales, dolphins, turtles) each year.
We can't recycle our way out of this problem. We desperately need to make real changes now and the Break Free From Plastics Act provides a route to substantially reduce plastic pollution and keep it out of the ocean. Some of the key parts of the bill:
- Require producers of packaging, containers, and food-service products to design, manage, and finance waste and recycling programs.
- Ban certain single-use plastic products and bags that are not recyclable.
- Create a nationwide refund program for beverage containers to increase recycling rates.
- Temporarily pause new plastic facilities until critical environmental and health protections are put in place.
- Incentivize businesses to make reusable products that can actually be recycled.
Without action, plastic pollution will only get worse. The industry is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into expanding capacity and is projected to triple plastic production by 2050. We need to stop this madness now!
Sign the petition to tell the sponsors of the Break Free From Plastics Act you support the bill and ask them to do all they can to pass it!
- Break Free From Plastic Movement (2020), "#breakfreefromplastic."
- Surfrider Foundation (2021), "Federal Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act Introduced!."
- International Union for Conservation of Nature (2021), "Marine plastics."
The Petition:
Dear Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative Jared Huffman,
Plastic pollution has become a full-blown crisis and without action now, it's going to get much worse!
We're drowning in plastic and yet we continue to manufacture more and more, year after year. Plastic is overflowing our landfills, polluting our rivers and ocean and killing marine animals. It's now in our food, water and even the air we breathe. 380 million metric tons of plastic are produced globally each year yet only 7% of all plastic is recycled - it's a massive problem and we desperately need a new approach to fix it.
The United States is the largest generator of plastic waste globally and we need to be responsible for our role in this global crisis. I believe that your Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act provides a route to substantially reduce plastic pollution and represents critical legislation for the health and future of humans, animals, the ocean, and the planet.
Sincerely,
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