The group known as Earth Island Institute has filed a lawsuit in California against the likes of Coke, Pepsi and Nestlé among others as it believes the firms knowingly mislead the public about how much plastic is being recycled. Earth Island claims that since 1950, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced globally while only nine percent of this has been recycled.
Inevitably, large swathes of the plastic makes its way to the oceans, and the group has claimed that by 2050, plastic in the ocean could outweigh fish.
Plastics in the ocean wreak havoc on marine life, as it releases toxic chemicals which is incredible harmful.
The amount of waste also has an affect on marine life’s natural habitat and micro-plastics are even consumed by ocean dwellers.
David McGuire, director of Shark Stewards, an Earth Island project, said: “As a marine biologist, as someone who lives every day in and around the ocean, I experience this first hand and I experience it every day.
“There’s not a day that I swim in the San Francisco Bay or that I surf and I don’t pick up a piece of plastic.”
According to VICE, a complaint against the plastic polluters reads: “At this rate, plastic is set to outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050.”
Sumona Majumdar, general counsel for Earth Island, said: “Fundamentally, the lawsuit seeks to hold corporations accountable for their share of plastic pollution and their claims that plastic packaging is recyclable.
“For too long, they have pushed those costs onto the public, and that includes nonprofits like Earth Island that are using charitable funds to clean up their mess.”
David Phillips, executive director of Earth Island Institute, said in a statement sent to The Guardian: “These companies should bear the responsibility for choking our ecosystem with plastic.
“This is the first suit of its kind. These companies are going to have to reveal how much they’ve known about how little of this stuff is being recycled.”
“They know very well that this stuff is not being recycled, even though they are telling people on the labels that it is recyclable and making people feel like it’s being taken care of.”
However, a governmental lobbying group for soft drink manufacturers hit back at the lawsuit, claiming they were already working on a solution
An American Beverage Association (ABA) spokesman told Bloomberg: “America’s beverage companies are already taking action to address the issue by reducing our use of new plastic, investing to increase the collection of our bottles, and collaborating with legislators and third-party experts to achieve meaningful policy resolutions.”
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