Hi Jon,
The European Parliament is about to vote on new legislation to restrict single-use plastics – but unless MEPs close loopholes in the law, plastic-polluting corporations could be let off the hook!
Members of the European Parliament in the Environment Committee just agreed to a definition of "single-use plastic" that allows polluters to simply market their throwaway polluting plastic products as "reusable." [1] For example, corporations would be able to market a plastic water bottle or take-away food container as reusable, even though they neither design nor intend for it to be returned to be reused.
While some of the changes to the legislation made by the Environment Committee are positive, this new loophole could seriously undermine the law. Pro-plastics MEPs may now try to weaken the rules even further, and try to get corporations off the hook from paying to clean-up their plastic waste. They could also try to make the definition of "single-use plastic" even more narrow, thereby enabling polluting corporations to largely avoid the new law altogether.
There’s still time for MEPs to propose changes before the vote next week to make sure that the Parliament closes this loophole, but there’s very little time left. If we can demonstrate that Europeans want the law strengthened, we could both fix the loophole and defend the proposal from pro-plastics MEPs’ attacks.
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All MEPs know that the European elections are coming up fast, and that their constituents are watching their votes. If each of us individually reaches out to our elected MEPs, they will see a groundswell against plastics, directly from their constituents!
Together, we can convince the EU to take badly needed action against plastic waste, and also make the world more accessible. People with mobility-related impairments and other people with disabilities rely on plastic straws because of their flexible and temperature-resilient qualities. MEPS need to take this into account, but it can't be used as an excuse to let polluting corporations off the hook.
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Our campaign last year was pivotal in getting the Single-Use Plastics Directive off the ground. After more than 750,000 of us called on the EU to take action on plastics, our community crowdsourced funds to take our message even further. We plastered billboards around Brussels with sobering images of the state of our oceans and wildlife - rife with plastic waste, and the Commission proposed ambitious new rules shortly after.
Now the time has finally come for the European Parliament to vote on the proposal. Will they allow loophole-laden legislation to become law, or will they protect our environment with a strong law that makes polluting corporations pay? Let’s help them decide - let your MEPs know that as their constituent, you feel strongly about plastic pollution.
Thank you for all you do,
Mika (Bordeaux), Virginia (Madrid), Jörg (Lübeck) and the entire team at WeMove.EU
PS: Europe is the world's second-largest producer of plastic in the world, and our vast use of plastic is still growing. [2] Each year, 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean - the equivalent of a truckload of waste every minute! [3] Sign now to tell the European Parliament to stop this.
References
[1] https://eeb.org/plastic-
[2] https://www.plasticseurope.
[3] https://www.weforum.org/
[1] https://eeb.org/plastic-
[2] https://www.plasticseurope.
[3] https://www.weforum.org/
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