• Encourage companies and other organizations to eliminate single-use and/or short-lived plastic in the workplace, at home, and at meetings or events.
• Share ideas and research that can help reduce single-use plastic in local communities.
• Install (or push to install) free public water fountains at your office, public spaces and events to encourage people to avoid single-use plastic water bottles.
• Make sure your voice is heard. If you see a company using unnecessary plastic (such as single-use covering fruit at a grocery store), call them out or contact them directly.
• Let your money do the talking. If you have a retirement fund, you could be inadvertently investing in unsustainable industries. Ask your fund manager to move it to a more responsible fund.
• Share solutions when you find them. If you come across an innovative solution or hear about a start-up tackling plastic pollution, tell your friends and promote the initiative on social media.
• Volunteer with local plastic clean-up groups.
• Donate to charities that are working to solve the plastic pollution crisis.
• Shift your behaviour to avoid single-use plastic whenever possible.
• Bring your own bags to the grocery store; avoid purchasing over-packaged products.
• Purchase items with extended warranties that can be repaired and ensure you find a reliable recycler for when the product reaches its end of life.
• Design out waste by eliminating and substituting unnecessary and hazardous plastic production and packaging, especially single-use plastic.
• Reduce the amount of plastic waste produced throughout operations, particularly in manufacturing and packaging.
• Improve plastic design and production to ensure products are reusable, minimally resource-intensive and can be recycled effectively.
• Cut costs through more efficient use of plastic, develop new revenue streams through ‘closed-loop’ business models that recover plastic as a useful resource and win customers by demonstrating more sustainable products.
• Leverage emerging technologies to develop profitable solutions to plastic pollution that support environmental, social and governance goals.
• Disclose more information about how much plastic is used in products, including plastics produced annually, as well as the chemicals used in plastic.
• Ensure plastic-based textiles such as polyester used to make clothes are recycled and not thrown away.
• Switch from plastic to mulch films in farming and embrace nature-based solutions, such as cover crops, which protect soil from erosion, weeds and pests.