You may have seen the photos: seals trapped in stray nets. Baby seabirds with stomachs full of plastic. Turtles with straws up their noses.

Sir David Attenborough is telling us that there’s a plastics crisis in our oceans. And the world is finally waking up.

This week British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a bold call to world leaders assembled in London: she called on Commonwealth governments -- including ours -- to join the fight to stop plastic pollution.

But Malcolm Turnbull is standing in the way.

This could be the rare moment of international coordination we need to help save the 1 million birds and 100,000 marine creatures that are killed by plastic waste every year. 

We can't let Australia block this progress. 

Time is running out to save our oceans. Over 90% of seabirds have plastic in their stomachs, which can cause starvation and poisoning.

A garbage truck full of plastic is dumped in our oceans every single minute!

Britain’s Conservative Government has pledged to eliminate plastic waste within 25 years. Prime Minister May plans to introduce bans on straws, stirrers, and cotton buds, and she’s asking that Commonwealth governments, like Australia, do that too.

We have 8.2 millions square kilometres of ocean under Australian territorial control Malcolm Turnbull has far more to gain than most Commonwealth leaders from addressing the unfolding disaster in our oceans. And he can do that by going right to the source: getting corporations to cut plastic waste. 

Rather than embrace this opportunity for progress he has turned his back. If SumOfUs members like you speak out now, we can force Turnbull to change his mind.

This is an unprecedented moment for getting real action on plastics and we need to seize it.

Just this year McDonald’s announced that it would be phasing out plastic straws in their UK stores. This came after 388,000 SumOfUs members signed our petition and 21,000 members sent emails to McDonald’s executives demanding action.

Over 300,000 SumOfUs members like you also joined a global coalition asking Starbucks to adopt better packaging - and we had a huge breakthrough! After huge pressure from you Starbucks just announced it will commit $10 million in a partnership to bring a fully recyclable and compostable cup to market in three years!

The movement to break free from destructive, single use plastics has never been stronger. We can’t let Malcolm Turnbull stand in the way of progress. Australia, and the companies that do business here, need to play their part.

So please, add your voice now.

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