Become an Eco-Warrior = PLEASE

Did you know……………………….

South Africans use between 30kg & 50kg of one use plastic per person, per year.

80% of marine pollution originates from land-based sources. Discarded plastic ends up at landfill locations, fows into rivers via rainstorms, into rivers (due to wind, littering, in-proper waste management, overflowing landfills) & eventually swept out to sea.

80 tons of discarded plastic make its way into the marine ecosystem annually, from our country alone!

Plastic waste takes hundreds of years to break down & when it does, is only into bits, known as micro-plastics.

Sea creatures swallow plastics by accident or mistake it for food.

Seabirds eat small bits of plastic & turtles often mistake a floating plastic bag for a jellyfish. 

Not only is this floating plastic a threat to marine animals, but also us humans, who eat them.

Retailers & hotel groups are making an effort to reduce single-use plastics.

> Shoprite announced in 2013 that plastic bags in Checkers stores were 100% recycled, diverting 2 100 tons of plastic waste from landfills.

> Woolworths will phase out single-use plastic shopping bags by 2020 & plastic straws & cutlery by 2022.

> Pick n Pay launched its "Make Plastic Bags Extinct" campaign in 2008 & boasts that all packaging in its PnP Green range is fully recyclable.

> Spar Eastern Cape announced its intention to abandon plastic bags in favour of paper but concedes customer education is an important factor in driving the change.

> Intercontinental Hotel Group is converting from amenity bottles to dispensers worldwide, in all their 5,600 properties. They admit to adding 20 tons of waste plastic to the planet, every year.

But my question to these well-meaning giants of our retail trade is ………………..

Ok what now, when your recycled bags also end up in landfills & eventually swept into the oceans?

Imagine this –

a.      The area taken up by floating waste plastic in oceans, cover an area of twice the size of South Africa

b.      The weight of the waste plastic in the world’s oceans is 500 x 747 jet planes

It is time to take a stand & do our bit, for the sake of our children & our planet.

Become an Eco-Warrior & do your bit to save our planet!

PLEASE!