Recently I have been noticing the extreme overuse of plastic in supermarkets. Everything is sealed in its own package, often claiming to be for hygiene reasons, but this has now gone too far. In other European countries, fruit, vegetables and bread are sold individually, often placed in paper bags when sold, or taken home in baskets or fabric bags. The use of plastic packaging for foodstuffs is not only a waste of chemicals and other resources, but is also harmful to the food itself, causing chemicals to be transferred into products which then enter our bodies.
Plastic is a material that has made many aspects of human life much easier, particularly in this day and age. However, this convenience has created an enormous problem, which will only continue to worsen if we don't cut back on our consumption of plastics. It is a well-known fact that plastic doesn't biodegrade, leaving us with the question of where this plastic ends up. Only around 7% of plastic used is recycled, with the rest entering landfill sites - taking an average 450 years to decompose - and often contaminating soil and water systems. Something particularly worrying is the collection of plastics and other debris in the Pacific Ocean, known as the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' - 86% of all ocean debris is plastic. Plastic is broken into microscopic pieces which can enter the digestive systems of marine life, building up and poisoning these creatures. In addition to this, larger pieces of plastic can cut and suffocate these creatures. This debris leads to over 1,000,000 deaths among seabirds and marine mammals each year. In itself, this is a horrendous issue, which must be stopped, but what is perhaps even more worrying is the issue of how to remove this plastic, and when this has been done, what to do with it. The only way in which the clearance can begin, is if our production and usage of plastic is seriously cut back on.
Please consider the importance of this petition, not only for the sake of our environment, but also for our own individual health, which can become impaired by the excess of packaging used.