Greenpeace wants New Zealand to become the first country in the world to ban plastic drinks bottles.

Last year, after a huge public outcry, the NZ Government banned single use plastic bags.

Now Greenpeace is launching a new campaign to "ban the bottle."

"This is the next logical step, if we are serious about protecting our wildlife and ourselves from the scourge of single-use plastic," says Greenpeace campaigner Holly Dove.

"We can be world leaders on this."

Drink manufacturers make and sell an estimated one billion single use plastic bottles every year in this country alone.

Greenpeace says a failing recycling and waste system means a good proportion of this plastic waste finds its way into landfills and the sea.

"Single use plastic is choking our wildlife, ninety per cent of NZ seabirds have eaten plastic and birds like Toroa (Royal Albatross) are plucking it out of the ocean and feeding it to their young," says Dove.

Single use plastics don’t decompose but break down into smaller and smaller bits - micro-plastics - which are showing up in the fish that we eat.

"New Zealanders love the coastlines; trips to the beach, our sea life, and kai moana. It's part of our way of life, and plastic pollution threatens that."

Greenpeace says drinks companies continue to push the message that we can recycle our way out of our tidal wave of plastic waste.

"The truth is we can’t. The only real solution is to design waste out of the system, and cut the amount of plastic that we are producing."

"The coalition government made a great start with banning single-use plastic bags last year, but the job’s not done. We need them to make sure that these companies stop bottling their products in single-use plastics, and start producing alternative options for their customers."

Link to: Ban the Bottle petition

Globally Of the 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic ever produced - 6.3 Billion has been turned into waste - 79% has accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. 12 per cent has been incinerated adding to global warming while only nine per cent has ever been recycled. After a concerted campaign by Greenpeace and its allies, single-use shopping bags were banned in NZ from 1 July 2019 under the Waste Management Act 2008 - that same law can be used to ban single use plastic bottles.

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