Ban Styrofoam, Plastic Cutlery and Straws in Mauritius!

Plastic and styrofoam can take 500 years to biodegrade in the ocean. Nearly every bit of plastic ever created still exists. It’s toxic, never goes away, and is piling up in our landfills and oceans.  So the less we can use, the better.

Recycling is too late. An article in the independent last month states "Recycling is an easy cop-out for governments and large corporations, but the truth is that we have to take very different action if we want to stop irreversibly poisoning the planet."

Popular pressure will push governments to adopt and implement strict measures on single use plastic, which is one of the biggest environmental problems we face today. The CNN article continues: "We can do much better. Immediate steps are needed. Governments and economists must act to address the recent collapse in markets for recycled plastic; production and recycling must become inextricably linked in a circular economy."

Styrofoam containers, plastic cutlery and straws are typically used no more than an hour or two and then sit in landfills for hundreds of years. They are the epitome of consumerism. Refuse them. Billions of styrofoam coffee cups and containers are thrown each year. Even paper cups are lined with plastic.

Disposable cutlery and straws are among the worst plastic pollution culprits. Like plastic bags and bottles, they’re used just once, for a few minutes, and then thrown away to stay decades on Earth. Pledge to yourself never to use a straw again.

Please sign our petition today to help take Mauritius to the next level, after banning plastic bags four years ago, and join growing worldwide action by banning replaceable or unnecessary plastic products including styrofoam products, plastic cutlery and straws.

Footnotes

1 Single-use or disposable plastics are commonly used for packaging and include items intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. 
https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25496/singleUsePlastic_sustainability.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 
2 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/every-minute-one-garbage-truck-of-plastic-is-dumped-into-our-oceans/ 
3 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/19/more-plastic-than-fish-in-the-sea-by-2050-warns-ellen-macarthur 
4 https://www.westerncape.gov.za/general-publication/plastic-pollution 
5 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44579422