Have you ever received an item completed wrapped in plastic? A tiny product in a huge box full of waste? A vegetable - that has its own natural packaging - unnecessarily wrapped in plastic? Unfourtantley that's probably a stupid question because of course, you have?

 

But what do you do about it?

 

Most of the time, we complain about it to ourselves, but take it nowhere further. And we're not judging anyone for that, after all, you never asked for all that plastic and waste, the company who sent it didn't get your permission. But we want you to take things further which is why we've created this email template that you can simply copy and paste and send onto the offender. All it will take is a few minutes out of your day to find the correct email and paste this text into the email. Your small step could make a huge difference. Let's stop just accepting all this waste we are sent. You'll see in the email template we've put about sending the waste/plastic back. This is an option you can keep in or delete (some may not want to cause more carbon emissions when it comes to posting, however, some may not want to keep the plastic in their home to discard) 

 

Shop local, plastic free, environmentally conscience companies

 

We get that is not as easy as it sounds, there are simply some items you cannot find that you know will come in plastic-free packaging. However, if there is a choice, purchase at your favourite plastic-free shop (cough cough www.awastefreeworld.com) and shop in confidence that you will never be sent any single-use products or packaging.

 

Email template

*Please note some options will need to be deleted to fit your circumstance.

 
To whom it may concern,
 
Today I received an item I purchased from you/ bought an item from your company only to find it came with excess single-use plastic/ excess waste and packaging.
As a consumer, I, unfortunately, am never quite sure how my item will arrive, and can only hope the company I am purchasing from has an interest in our environment and understands the devastating effects single-use plastic and waste are having on our environment, and therefore will not wrap my item in single-use plastic and excess waste. This was not the case with your company.
If you weren't aware, the main cause of the increase in plastic production over the last few years is plastic packaging.  Single-use-plastics frequently do not make it to a landfill or are recycled.[11] A full 32% of the 78 million tons of plastic packaging produced annually is left to flow into our oceans; the equivalent of pouring one garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute. This is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050. By 2050, this could mean there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans.[12] 
In my position as a consumer, while I have no control over the packaging you send me, I do have control over where I shop, and I will no longer be shopping with you until you change your packaging. I would also like to ask if you could send me a pre-paid label that I can print off and send this unnecessary packaging back to you, I did not ask for it and I do not want it littering my home when I try so hard to avoid single-use plastics. 
I hope this email does not just receive a standard response but is actually taken into consideration and discussed with your team in order to create a better future for consumers of your company and the planet we rely on.
Yours sincerely,

 

Resources:

[11] Plastic Pollution Primer and Action Tookit, Earth Day Network, 2018

[12] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/every-minute-one-garbage-truck-of-plastic-is-dumped-into-our-oceans/

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