Plastic-free July: What Do the People Really Want?

It’s only day one of Plastic Free July, an initiative of activist organization Plastic Free Foundation, and we’re already getting some mixed messages.

Greenpeace, as is its wont, has come up with a clever campaign to raise awareness that we are “drowning in plastic.” It filled Eden Park stadium in Auckland with around a billion plastic bottles to “illustrate the number of throwaway single-use plastic bottles sold in New Zealand every year by corporations such as Coca-Cola.” Well, it didn’t actually fill the stadium with real plastic bottles — CGI was used in the video — “but the picture it paints is very real,” said Greenpeace spokesperson Juressa Lee.

The microplastics boogeyman.

The NGO goes on to say that only a small portion of single-use plastic is ever recycled and that it “inevitably breaks down” into microplastics. (There is some debate about that.) While Greenpeace does recognize that it’s not yet clear how microplastics impact human health, it does call out research that shows potential links to a host of issues, including early-onset colorectal cancer, insulin resistance, weight gain, and more.

Lee goes on to say that more than 100,000 New Zealanders have signed a petition calling on the government to ban single-use plastic bottles.

Majority of California voters oppose elimination of plastic bags.

Meanwhile, in California, which is usually in a similar camp, a poll claims that almost 60% of likely voters are opposed to bills pending in the state legislature that would eliminate plastic bags from grocery stores. Instead, the 802 likely voters that participated in the survey, conducted by John Zogby Strategies and made public today by the Responsible Recycling Alliance, support recycling efforts.

The Responsible Recycling Alliance is a newly established coalition of three California recyclers and manufacturers — EFS Plastics, Merlin Plastics, and PreZero US — as reported in PlasticsToday on June 28. The coalition is opposed to AB 2236 and SB 1053, which would eliminate reusable plastic film grocery bags.

Survey claims support across all parties.

The survey claims to find support among likely California voters “across all political parties, ages, and other demographics.” To be fair, it is a small sampling and might have involved some coaching, as the press release notes that “California voters became even more opposed to the current legislation as they learn more about [the bills].”

The Responsible Recycling Alliance considers the bills anti-environmental because they limit consumer choices to “non-recyclable, imported canvas and sewn poly-woven or non-woven polypropylene bags or paper bags, both of which carry with them negative environmental challenges when compared to plastic film bags.” The bills would also eliminate thousands of jobs, according to the coalition. A more sensible approach, it argues, would be to shift responsibility to recyclers by integrating the bills into the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Program created in 2022.

I’m sure there will be plenty more to opine about during plastic-free July, but for now let me leave you with my observations on last year’s plastic-free day. I remain unbowed.