Download: Albatross Coalition Coca-Cola letter 2017 01 19
We are writing to you as co-chairs of Save the Albatross Coalition, a campaign of non-profit Zero Waste USA. Our mission is to prevent plastic discards from leading to the death of more than 200,000 Laysan Albatross chicks each year in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which was recently expanded to the entire Hawaiian Archipelago including Midway Atoll and Laysan Island.
We are especially interested in redesigning plastic bottle caps, which are some of most highly littered items impacting sea life. If you have not yet seen the photo of a deceased albatross with a belly full of plastic – including bottle caps, please visit our web site: https://albatrosscoalition.org/ or the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Laysan Albatrosses’ Plastic Problem page at: http://ocean.si.edu/slideshow/laysan-albatrosses%E2%80%99-plastic-problem.
In addition to killing wildlife, bottle caps are blight to our beaches, our parks and our neighborhoods. They are commonly found floating in rivers and streams flowing throughout this great country and around the world, which of course all ultimately lead to the ocean.
Though we would like to do away with the single use plastic bottle and cap, we understand that solution is not immediately feasible. Therefore, we propose a pragmatic measure that we think would be beneficial to all stakeholders – including plastics manufacturers, retailers and recyclers. Keep the lid leashed to the bottle! We understand that because the density of the plastics in the bottle and the cap are different and are easy to separate, plastic bottle recyclers support this simple redesign.
Our next steps are to take this important issue to the media and draft legislation. We invite Coca-Cola to join our effort and to initialize the redesign process.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration. We look forward to your prompt reply.
Respectfully,
SAVE THE ALBATROSS COALITION
| Captain Charles C. Moore Founder, Algalita Marine Research and Education Long Beach, CA |
Neil Seldman President, Institute for Local Self-Reliance Washington, D.C. |