#singleuseplastic
We need a strong global treaty on plastics
#Politics #Plastic #SingleUsePlastic #Treaty #Pollution #Avaaz #Petition
"We’ve seen it choking life in the deepest oceans and on the highest mountains. Now, shocking studies are finding plastic pollution everywhere: in the rain, our food, our drinking water, even in the human placenta! It’s poisoning us, and life on Earth.
But finally we have a unique opportunity to change this.
Right now, the United Nations is considering a new ambitious global treaty to end plastic pollution. If countries agree to it, we have a real chance of cleaning up our planet! But big polluters are already trying to water down the proposal.
It’s up to all of us to show them that the whole world supports the strongest possible treaty to end the plastic crisis!
Plastic is toxic from the moment production begins. It’s made from the same dirty fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis. And it doesn’t decompose! A plastic bottle breaks down into tiny, invisible pieces that can travel around the world through water and air, contaminating our seas, our rivers, and even our bodies!
Even rain is polluted with plastic. Scientists in the US found that rain is flooding protected national parks with 1,000 tons of microplastics every year -- that's the equivalent of pouring over 120 million plastic bottles!
This is a planetary emergency, and we need an urgent, coordinated international response. That’s why more than 100 countries are calling for a binding global treaty, which could bring an end to the throwaway-plastic culture, and transition the world towards a future that protects people, wildlife, and our climate.
But big oil and chemical firms, as well as a small group of countries, led by Japan, are already trying to weaken the plan. So we need to mobilise fast, and show our governments at the key UN meeting this month that people everywhere demand the most robust treaty to end the plastic plague.
We’ve done it before. Our movement spearheaded the mobilisations that led to the landmark Climate Paris Agreement, and more recently we mobilised from around the world to stop rich countries from dumping their plastic waste onto low-income nations. We know that such battles can be long, and treaties don’t always deliver the results we need, fast enough. But this is the best chance we have ever had to kick-start a coordinated, international response – so we all have to speak out now, and keep pushing until we win a world safe from plastic.
With hope and determination,
Spyro, Laura, Luis, Anneke, Huiting, Muriel, Stefanie and the whole team at Avaaz"
Solubag makes environmentally friendly bags and packaging that look like plastic, but will dissolve in water without leaving any toxic or polluting residues
The SoluBag material is made from non-toxic components, consisting of a synthesis of calcium carbide and natural gas. The components are so harmless that the bag itself can be dissolved, drank, or even eaten by humans or animals without causing any health issues. The production of SoluBag is part of the uniqueness of the invention: it can be manufactured on machinery that would otherwise be used to produce plastic films, thus making it simple for producers to switch to creating and distributing a more sustainable material. Users don’t have to worry about it dissolving in the rain on a walk home from the grocery store–the material performs exactly like a traditional plastic bag, and will only dissolve if immersed in water above a certain temperature, or else left in cool water for several days. Solubility is calibrated and set by water temperature, i.e. hotter the water, the faster it dissolves.
This material solves two issues, namely alleviating the need for petroleum products to manufacture it, and obviously also the pollution aspect which gets eliminated.
See SoluBag – Sustainable Islands Platform
#environment #plasticbags #pollution #solubag #singleuseplastic
Action against plastic bags is increasing worldwide, often taking the form of bans on certain plastic products. Founded in Chile, SoluBag introduces a new way of reducing plastic waste by creating plastic bags from water soluble materials that dissolve in five seconds* rather than thousands of years. SoluBag is working to make the earth a...