76% of Voters Think Australian Government Isn’t Doing Enough to Address Single Use Plastic Waste, New Poll Finds

October 04, 2018

A Further 71% of Liberal Voters Support Broad Regulation Forcing Companies to Phase Out All Non-Recyclable Packaging

AUSTRALIA -- New polling commissioned by international consumer group SumOfUs, has found 76% of Australian voters - including 72% of Liberal voters - believe the Morrison Government should be doing more to tackle single use plastic waste. The poll comes as the European Parliament is set to vote on powerful regulation aimed at curbing plastic waste next week.

VIEW THE POLL HERE: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.sumofus.org/images/Essential_Report_250918_waste.pdf

SumOfUs argues that Turnbull is standing in the way of the United Kingdom’s ask for commonwealth governments to cut plastic pollution, as Britain’s Government has already pledged to eliminate plastic waste within 25 years by introducing bans on plastic straws, stirrers, and cotton buds.

SEE THE PETITION HERE: https://actions.sumofus.org/a/tell-malcolm-turnbull-to-protect-our-oceans

“Australians of all political stripes want strong action on plastics. ,” said Katherine Tu, campaigner at SumOfUs. “While Turnbull may not see eye to eye with Theresa May on every political issue, climate change and pollution should not be up for debate. May’s ask for commonwealth governments to join the fight against plastic pollution is a clear sign that Australia needs to do more. This could be the rare moment of international coordination we need to help save the 1 million birds and 100,000 marine creatures that are killed by plastic waste every year.”

This past year, McDonald’s announced that it would be phasing out plastic straws in their UK stores after nearly 500,000 SumOfUs members signed a petition and sent 21,000 emails to McDonald’s executives demanding action.

SEE THE PETITION HERE: : https://actions.sumofus.org/a/mcdonalds-is-polluting-our-oceans

Over 370,000 SumOfUs members also joined a global coalition asking Starbucks to adopt better packaging this past year. After immense amounts of public pressure, Starbucks recently announced it will commit $10 million in a partnership to bring a fully recyclable and compostable cup to market in three years.

SEE THE PETITION HERE: : https://actions.sumofus.org/a/starbucks-recyclable-cups