Tackle the plastic pollution crisis this Giving Tuesday

This time of year, the plastic pollution crisis is hard to ignore. With holiday shopping in full swing, piles of plastic packaging are stacking up on many of our doorsteps.

Altogether, Americans generate 35 million tons of plastic waste annually — but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Too much of what we throw away was designed to be waste from the very beginning, like polystyrene food containers or the plastic air pillows padding the boxes of online orders. If the companies producing this stuff used less plastic, we’d be well on our way to a more sustainable future.

This Giving Tuesday, confronting the plastic pollution crisis is our top priority — and we’re setting our sights on convincing Amazon and other retailers to cut back their waste.

Plastic waste is hard to avoid, and hard to recycle

For so many of us, holiday shopping turns into frustrating piles of plastic packaging on your doorstep. Some items are shipped in huge boxes padded out by plastic pillows, others come wrapped in flimsy plastic envelopes.

We put some packaging into the blue bin, but many kinds of plastic aren’t actually recyclable at all. Less than 10% of all plastic gets successfully recycled.

Enough is enough. Waste and pollution are out of control. Retailers like Amazon simply need to stop using so much plastic in the first place.  

This Giving Tuesday, we’re working to hold wasteful companies accountable and move our country beyond plastic.

With your support, we’re convincing companies to cut back on wasteful plastic

We’re starting with Amazon, and we’re already seeing progress. The retail giant announced plans to phase out one kind of plastic shipping envelope after PIRG and our national coalition delivered 137,000 petition signatures to them.

We’ll carry that momentum forward to convince even more companies — like Costco, Whole Foods, and more — to cut back on their plastic waste, too.

That’s on top of our other campaigns to confront the plastic pollution crisis at the state and national levels. Across our national network, PIRG is supporting state bans on the worst forms of single-use plastic. And we’re supporting national legislation to hold all producers accountable for the waste their products become.

Supporters like you make it all possible. Make your Giving Tuesday donation now to help us win a less wasteful and more sustainable future.