There’s a fairly important war going on at the moment, you’ll not see it on the news nor welcome home soldiers who have survived the conflict; but still the battles rages on in dozens of countries throughout the world with the expectation that the fight will in the future soon spread to almost every nation. The first stage of the war has seen some victories that should be appreciated and saluted as initial wins have been recorded in  Rwanda, France, Tanzania and Bangladesh. Other wins have also been noted in the city of Vancouver and the province of Manitoba. Even as I write much of Canada and the United States along with significant parts of Europe and elsewhere are joining the fight. The war will spread and victory is critical for the future to be safer and cleaner, the war on plastic is underway.

Each of the battlegrounds I mention above have won important victories against the single use plastic bag – significant legislative wins that have resulted in the ban of the plastic bag and awareness and promotion of an environmentally friendly reusable bag alternative. The war isn’t asking you to sacrifice anything other than some very outdated methods of carrying your shopping – not only outdated but a dreadful waste of natural resources and cause of untold amounts of pollution. The war on plastic will begin with bags and bottles but gradually spread to more than just everyday use items as we move into a brave new world where we ask what the cost of convenience is, not in terms of our financial outlay but the long term and far more important impact on our planet. We have oceans that are filling with plastics that can not bio degrade, landfills that will contain bottles and bags into the next millennium and to add to the travesty we use precious oil in the manufacturing process for every plastic based item in existence.

Plastic has seen better days, we can reduce the use of plastics in many industries far more rapidly than the manufacturers would like us to believe. The battle won’t be over with a single piece of legislation or a news report but will take years of education, activism and dedication. Some of the earliest changes are actually much easier than you can imagine and where alternatives are available such as with bags and water bottles the time to act has already arrived. There will be resistance in the battle, business owners will cite expense outweighing benefits, politicians will claim that the public aren’t shouting loud enough yet and cynics will look to debunk the science and studies that demonstrate that plastic dependence is taking us down a dark path that soon will be impossible to navigate away from.

In this series of posts I’ll focus in on key battlegrounds and reports that help further our awareness of the War on Plastic. For now we believe that our company Planet Forward can provide stainless steel water bottles, reusable bags and other options to arm you in joining the resistance.

In part two I’ll bring you new information about a large battle taking place now in California and what the two sides are contesting.

Tags: environmental responsibility, one use plastic bags, planet forward, plastic bag bans, plastic bag reduction, plastic water bottle reduction, reduction in plastic use, reusable bags, stainless steel water bottles, war on plastic