The blight of the sachet

Copy of a letter to the Telegraph

Dear Sir,

Globally some 855 billion sachets are thrown away every year. If you placed a year’s worth of sachets end to end, they would stretch 4.5 million miles- equivalent to 189 trips from Earth to the Moon.

We have become slaves to the sachet. Unless urgent action is taken, we are set to use one trillion of them by 2030. And almost all of these will be made of plastic.

Ketchup, soy sauce, shampoo and moisturiser, towelettes and face wipes, washing powder, detergent and even milk – all are sold in single serve single use plastic sachets, billions of which each year go to landfill, are incinerated or end up in our environment.

They are the ultimate symbol of our grab and go addicted to convenience lifestyle. Uncollectable, unrecyclable and valueless they pollute our planet at an increasing rate.

Solutions are available today, using systems and materials that nature can easily handle. The time for excuses has long gone. The campaign group A Plastic Planet believes it’s time to call a halt to the lunacy that is the plastic sachet.

We agree. That’s why we are calling for global business leaders and politicians to work together urgently to end the curse of the plastic sachet for good.

Princess Marie-Esmeralda of Belgium

Peter Thompson United Nations Secretary General’s special envoy for oceans

Richard Walker Managing director Iceland Foods

Sir Desmond Swayne MP

And 43 others see telegraph.co.uk