Lobby Your Local MP and Senator

The Overuse of Plastic and associated pollution is having dire health consequences on us, animals and the planet. And it's only geting worse...

1950 - 2 million tons of plastic produced

2019 - 460 million tons of plastic produced

2050 - predicted to be 590 million tonnes produced

To date there is about 8.3 billion tons of plastic in the world. If current trends continue, by 2050 we'll have produced 26 billion metric tonne of plastic waste. There’ll also be more plastic than fish in the ocean, with no clear path on how to unscramble the microplastic egg.

As plastic production continues, our exposure to plastic and its associated toxic chemicals will only continue to grow, as will the consequences.

While we all need to buy less plastic, we also need to lobby governments and big business to look at reducing toxic pollution at the manufacturing level, and taking responsibility for their waste via product stewardship programs.

Big conglomerates like Coca-Cola, the world's biggest plastic polluter and Dow Chemical Company, the biggest manufacturer of plastic, won’t do this on their own. This can only happen with legislation, which can only happen if we apply pressure to our politicians.

The government’s ‘pledge’ to recycle all plastics by 2040 is lacklustre at best. Recycling is only part of the solution, and 2040 is a long, long way away. The High Ambition Coalition is not ambitious enough.

Send an email to your state senators and local MPs so they register your concern.

Here’s how to find them.

Below is a sample letter than you can copy and personalise.

POLITICIANS LETTER
The Hon. <insert name> MP
Senator the Hon. <insert name>

I am writing to you today to express my very real concern about the growing global plastic waste problem.

While I do what I can on a personal level to reduce the amount of plastic waste I produce, individual action can only take us so far.

I would like to see the government treat this issue with the utmost urgency. We need immediate action on expanding product stewardship programs and extra recycling streams in Australia.

But more than that, we need the manufacturing of unnecessary plastic to drastically reduce in the very short term to avoid the growing health crisis created by the toxic synthetic chemicals polluting us and the planet at the manufacturing level.

As more and more research is conducted into the long-term health implications for people, animals and planet, it seems absurd that there is no will to immediately curb the overproduction of plastic.

Unfortunately, only a very small percentage of plastic is recovered for recycling. Plastic is not infinitely recyclable, anyway. Every piece of plastic ever made, now over 8.3 Billion Metric Tonne, still exists in some form today, leaching into our waterways from landfill leachate, polluting the environment and floating in the ocean, with no real solutions on how to control it.

If we don’t slow down now, by 2050 we'll have produced 26 billion metric tons of plastic waste, there’ll be more plastic than fish in the ocean, and the bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals in the environment, food chain and humans will be irreparable.

Further, the manufacture of plastics relies heavily on fossil fuels, which is inextricably linked to the quickening pace of climate change.

The government’s ‘pledge’ to recycle all plastics by 2040 is lacklustre at best. Recycling is only part of the solution, and 2040 is a long, long way away. The High Ambition Coalition is not ambitious enough.

Big business won’t take the high road on their own. They have proved this over and over with ineffective voluntary codes.

I urge every member of parliament to push this crucial issue to the top of their priority list, including lobbying our international partners, to urgently reduce the amount of plastic produced, reused and recycled.

Sincerely,
your name
your state and suburb