To mark the start of Plastic Free July, Greenpeace has released a startling video showing Auckland’s iconic Eden Park stadium filled with around a billion single-use plastic bottles.

The short CGI video vividly illustrates the number of throwaway single-use plastic bottles sold in New Zealand every year by corporations such as Coca-Cola.

"To avoid using real plastic bottles, we have rendered the video with CGI, but the picture it paints is very real," says Greenpeace spokesperson Juressa Lee. "Thanks to companies like Coca-Cola, the world is drowning in plastic. Here in Aotearoa alone, companies like Coke sell one billion single-use plastic bottles every year.

"Only a small portion of single-use plastic is ever recycled, but all of it inevitably breaks down into microplastic pollution.

"Today is the first day of Plastic Free July when people are encouraged to make an extra effort to reduce their use of plastic. But while those efforts are important, individual action alone can only ever make a small dent in the plastic pollution crisis. We have to see action from Government to get lasting change.

"Microplastics are now found in the ocean, in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, our blood, and even our placentas. It’s everywhere, and it’s not yet clear what health impacts that may lead to, but the oil and plastic industry just keeps pumping it out."

Research shows there could be a link between microplastics in the gut and early-onset colorectal cancer, and there is evidence that chemical compounds linked to serious health issues such as endocrine disruption, weight gain, insulin resistance, decreased reproductive health, and cancer can leach from plastic water bottles and enter our bodies.

After playing a key role in the campaign to ban plastic bags and to get the Government to begin phasing out some other single-use plastic products, Greenpeace is calling for a shift to a reusable model for drinks and a ban on single-use plastic bottles, which have thus far escaped any Government regulation despite being one of the main contributors to plastic pollution in New Zealand.

"Over 100,000 people have signed our petition calling on the Government to ban single-use plastic bottles, and we hope this stark illustration of the sheer volume of plastic bottles sold in New Zealand every year will prompt even more people to join the call."

Internationally, Greenpeace and others have been calling for a global plastics treaty that would reduce plastic production and prioritise protecting biodiversity, safeguarding the climate and ensuring a just transition to a low-carbon, reuse-based economy.

At the United Nations Environmental Assembly 5.2 in March 2022, governments officially adopted a mandate opening negotiations for a global, legally-binding plastics treaty to address the whole lifecycle of plastics.

The negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty then started in November 2022, with the goal of completing the process by the end of 2024.

A recent global survey demonstrated overwhelming public support for the Global Plastics Treaty, which aims to reduce plastic production, end single-use plastics, and advance reuse-based solutions.

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