THE PROBLEM
The Plastic Industry is trashing our planet! With one million plastic beverage bottles sold every minute, plastic bottles and bottle caps have earned their rank as the third and fourth most littered items worldwide. These plastics are breaking down in our oceans and making their way into our food webs, and into our own bodies. It is estimated that humans ingest about a credit card’s worth of plastic every week! Additionally, the creation of these bottles is a huge contributor to global climate change, with 17 million barrels of oil being used every year to produce plastic water and soda bottles in the US alone.
2,000 water bottles are consumed per second, and one million plastic water bottles are purchased per minute globally. These staggering numbers are a red flag for peoples’ addiction to the convenience of single-use plastic water bottles and that action must be taken to prevent the Monterey Bay from filling with this kind of pollution.
SOLUTIONS AND ACTION
We have the power to stop plastic production at the source and prevent further degradation of our planet by plastic producers. That is why Save Our Shores is calling our community to action. We are launching a signature gathering campaign to minimize pollution from plastic beverage bottles.
Will you join us in our fight against plastic pollution? CLICK HERE to sign and share our petition!
Save Our Shores has a reputation of working with local governing bodies to eliminate pollution from plastic beverage bottles and other single-use plastic items throughout the Bay. We work closely with the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors, who passed a comprehensive directive requiring the County of Santa Cruz Department of Public Works (DPW) to collaborate and develop recommendations designed to reduce plastic pollution across the County. Plastic water bottles were one of the items specifically called out.
The action included a prohibition on the use of any County funds from being spent to purchase water in single-use plastic bottles for County meetings and events. This is just the beginning, and we will continue working with local government to reduce the impact of plastic water bottles!
