Coca-Cola is addicted to plastic. Last year, the corporation increased its use of plastic bottles by over 1 billion.
And they go towards the 35 million new plastic bottles used every single day in the UK, up to a staggering 16 million can go un-recycled. Instead they end up in landfills, and littering our beaches and oceans.
It doesn’t have to be this way -- thanks to a simple bottle deposit scheme in Germany, 98.5% of refillable bottles are returned.
Coca-Cola has spent years lobbying against bottle return schemes, but changed its tune earlier this year thanks to pressure from SumOfUs members like you.
With deposit schemes already under consideration in Wales and Scotland, now Environment Secretary Michael Gove has hinted at the introduction of a similar scheme for England. So let’s finish the job! If enough of us sign the petition, we can show him that the British people are on the side of the environment, not corporate profits!
Michael Gove: a plastic bottle deposit scheme in England? Yes please!
Almost half of our plastic bottles go un-recycled in Britain: it’s just not sustainable.
Michael Gove’s proposal for a ‘reward and return’ scheme comes as welcome news, from a government with a shaky record on the environment.
By adding a few pence to the price of a bottled drink, under a scheme of 'reward and return' when anyone recycles the bottle at a shop or drop off point, we can take a huge chunk of plastic waste out of our landfills and get them recycled.
With the Scottish and Welsh governments saying they’re also considering introducing a scheme, there’s no excuse this time.
Tell Michael Gove we want to see a bottle ‘reward and return’ in the UK!
Over 66,000 SumOfUs members like you supported our last try to get a deposit scheme running in the UK -- with your help, the issue forced its way onto the agenda. Now we need one final push to get English law-makers to take the idea seriously, and consign single use plastic bottles to the dustbin of history.
More information
The Guardian. 2 October 2017.
BBC. 2 October 2017.