Get the big bread companies to use compostable bread clips!!!

Why should people sign?

Because it's often the smallest things like bread clips that are easily blown around in windy weather. Millions of tonnes of plastic waste has already accumulated in the ocean and it now has its own name... the "Pacific Garbage Patch".

I think ALL food producers need to be much more aware about where materials come from and where they go at the end of their life. I suggest more people read the book "cradle to cradle". How come the plastic bread clips last a thousand years longer than the actual bread? That is not right and it has got to stop!

Worse, I'm pretty sure that these breadclips are bade from polystyrene (which is bad). I know that here in Australia, they aren't recycled because they are too small to be sorted by recycling centres.

I think bread producers should be looking for compostable bread clips. That way, if they do happen to end up in the ocean, they will decompose naturally within only a few weeks.

Some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine animals, and their young, including sea turtles and the black-footed albatross. Midway Atoll receives substantial amounts of marine debris from the patch. Of the 1.5 million Laysan albatrosses that inhabit Midway, nearly all are found to have plastic in their digestive system. Approximately one-third of their chicks die, and many of those deaths are due to being fed plastic from their parents. Twenty tons of plastic debris washes up on Midway every year with five tons of that debris being fed to albatross chicks.

Besides the particles' danger to wildlife, on the microscopic level the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs. Aside from toxic effects, when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animal. These toxin-containing plastic pieces are also eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish.

Many of these fish are then consumed by humans, resulting in their ingestion of toxic chemicals.

Marine plastics also facilitate the spread of invasive species that attach to floating plastic in one region and drift long distances to colonize other ecosystems.

While eating their normal sources of food, plastic ingestion can be unavoidable or the animal may mistake the plastic as a food source.

Research has shown that this plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species worldwide.