Greenpeace Africa activists and volunteers delivered a #PlasticMonster partly covered with Nestlé branded plastic packaging right back to its source: the Nestlé factory servicing Kenya and other East African countries.
Greenpeace Africa Communications Officer, Hellen Dena, disclosed this to EnviroNews in a statement on Thursday, April 18, 2019.
Calling on the multinational corporation to end its reliance on single-use plastic, the activists also held protests at Nestlé offices in the Philippines, Germany and other countries across the globe as part of a global day of action led by Greenpeace and allies from the ‘Break Free From Plastic’ movement.
In response to the global day of action against Nestlé, Greenpeace Africa’s Plastics campaigner, Amos Wemanya said: “Plastic waste has polluted the oceans and is affecting human health. In Africa, our drainage systems are clogged; our animals and livelihoods are threatened.
“Corporations’ indiscriminate and unsustainable plastic production is the cause of these problems. Last year, Nestlé produced a shocking 1.7 million tonnes of plastic packaging – nearly 300 garbage trucks a day – a 13 per cent increase from the year before. It is crucial that corporates such as Nestlé stop the production of single-use plastics and re-think their packaging.
“People around the world are taking action today to demand Nestlé to show true leadership and confront the throwaway culture that underpins its current business model. Leadership does not mean substituting plastic with another single-use material like paper or bioplastic, which will shift the destructive impacts of the throwaway culture to the world’s forests and agricultural lands. For the sake of our planet and human health, we need Nestlé to immediately reduce its production of single-use packaging and invest in delivery systems based on refill and reuse.”
From Manila to Rotterdam, and along the Rhine with a “plastic monster” to Nestlé’s headquarters in Switzerland, Greenpeace has been raising awareness about the plastic production crisis in towns and villages across the globe.
Last year, Greenpeace Africa’s volunteers championed the #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement across Africa, conducting brand audits, which found Nestlé to be one of the top three plastic polluters in the world! In Africa, Nestlé produces a host of products, ranging from household products to snack items and bottled water.
Greenpeace is demanding that fast-moving consumer goods companies (FMCGs) like Nestlé, Unilever, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Danone, Johnson & Johnson and Mars be transparent and active in their immediate reduction in the production of plastic packaging while investing in the alternative delivery system of refill and reuse. To date, over three million people from around the world have signed a petition calling on brands to act.
By Chika Onwuji
