UPDATE 19 Dec 2018: Petition closed with over 279,000 signatures. EU plastics law agreed this week is weaker than what the European Parliament supports, and what the plastic pollution crisis requires -- but it's a leap forward. Corporations will be made to pay for their pollution -- and that's thanks to public pressure!

Multinationals tried to stop the EU getting tough on their #PlasticPollution. But EU negotiators last night agreed a text that will finally make corporations pay. More to do next year, but certainly worth celebrating today! More info: https://t.co/H8LAXzwPUS pic.twitter.com/ku2emzyHdU

— SumOfUs (@SumOfUs) December 19, 2018

The EU’s legal net is closing in on plastic polluters like Coke and Nestlé -- but there’s a hole that urgently needs to be fixed!

An honest mistake, or a gift to polluting corporations -- the European Parliament Environment Committee just agreed on a legal definition of “single-use plastic” that could allow polluters to simply market their throwaway polluting plastic products as reusable.

MEPs can propose more changes before they all vote on the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive on October 23. They must fix this massive mistake, and resist industry pressure to weaken the law.

Tell the European Parliament to fix the proposed plastics law, so corporations radically reduce their single-use plastic pollution, and sea life can breathe again.

Some of the Environment Committee’s changes to the proposed law are great. Food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene, for example, were added to the list of polluting plastic products to be banned by 2021. They also want governments to finally make tobacco companies cover the costs of waste collection for their plastic packaging and cigarette butts, including transport, treatment and litter collection.

But it’s not only about saving seagulls or making polluters pay. The struggle against polluting plastics is the struggle against runaway climate change too. The International Energy Agency warned in a report this month, that the single most important driver of global oil demand growth in the next 10 to 15 years is petrochemicals -- which is what 99% of plastics are made from.

Tell MEPs to fix the proposed plastics law now! A turtle choked on relabelled plastic is still a dead turtle.

More information