Single-Use Packaging has dominated our modern lives. The cost to our forests is immense: 3 billion are cut down every year for paper packaging alone.
Single-use packaging has been on the rise for the last decades, as consumption increases and a disposability mentality spreads not only in the Global North, but increasingly in the Global South as well, as standards of living also increase in major economies.
This trend has fast-tracked this past decade with the fast growing industries of e-commerce and food delivery, with companies such as Amazon, Uber Eats, Wolt, Bolt Food and so many other multinational corporations allowing for fast and cheap delivery of all kinds of goods at the doorstep of millions around the world. Increasingly, restaurants, cafés and other food giants have made composite packaging (made out of paper and plastic layers) the default option (if not the only one) to deliver our food.
Launched in 2023, Refuse Single-Use Day (January 6th) is a global campaign uniting businesses, governments, civil society, citizens and the youth to reject the culture of disposability in all its forms. The initiative goes beyond fighting plastic pollution to reject all single-use materials—including paper, “bio-plastics,” and other false eco-friendly packaging—ensuring we do not simply swap one environmental problem for another. By scaling up reuse and refill systems, the campaign demands a systemic shift away from the “take-make-waste” economy that has led us into the throes of the triple planetary crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change toward lasting, sustainable solutions.
Those of us who fight every day to save our forests from the pulp and paper industries relentless expansion for more wood and pulp are fighting the same battle: decreasing the production and consumption of single-use paper-based packaging.
Today, join us in sharing how are you refusing single-use packaging: whether taking your reusable water bottle with you all-day, to refusing to take your coffee on the go and sit down instead and ask for a coffee served in a reusable, classic, ceramic cup or to simply to eat at home or at a restaurant where they serve you reusable plates, glasses and cutlery.
Share it to raise awareness that often is the smallest of changes in our habits, done consistently and as best as we can possibly can that have the steadiest of impacts – it also signals businesses that they need to reinvest again in reusable cutlery, dishes and cups.
Take a picture, tag us and write #RefuseSingleUseDay!