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To: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Bruton

Ban micro plastic from Ireland

Introduce a ban on toxic and dangerous micro-plastics. You promised to act on this in 2018 but dragged your heels.

Why is this important?

72% of sampled Irish drinking water is contaminated by microplastics [1]. Fish that we eat have been shown to have consumed plastics [2]. We are eating and drinking tiny fragments of plastic - this has become a human health issue of massive proportions.

The Government promised to ban microplastics within a year in 2016, but we are still waiting. [3] Countries all over the world are taking action, and we can too. Richard Bruton, it's time to take decisive action and ban all products containing microplastics!

We're asking Richard Bruton to follow the lead of other countries across Europe and put in place a ban on the manufacture and sale of plastic microbeads in this country. They do not biodegrade and persist for a very long time in the environment,[1] https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/our-drinking-water-is-widely-contaminated-with-tiny-bits-of-plastic-36104664.html
[2] https://theconversation.com/bait-and-switch-anchovies-eat-plastic-because-it-smells-like-prey-81607
[3] http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/micro-beads-there-will-be-more-waste-plastic-in-the-ocean-than-fish-by-2050-3667684-Oct2017/

Updates

2018-02-19 22:17:33 +0000

5,000 signatures reached

2018-01-11 20:15:10 +0000

1,000 signatures reached

2018-01-11 19:20:31 +0000

500 signatures reached

2018-01-11 18:37:58 +0000

100 signatures reached

2018-01-11 17:43:13 +0000

50 signatures reached

2018-01-11 17:31:35 +0000

25 signatures reached

2018-01-11 17:26:58 +0000

10 signatures reached