Date: 2008 – ongoing
Category: Environment
Since its launch in 2008, The Daily Mail’s ‘Turn the Tide on Plastic’ campaign has led calls for measures to stop the tide of waste that is poisoning the oceans. Every year, Britons drain 14 billion plastic drinks bottles and even though the bottles are fully recyclable, some 3.2 billion are thrown away. The newspaper has campaigned for plastic bags to be banished, the introduction of a plastic bottle deposit scheme, and action to be taken on the mountain of non-recyclable coffee cups blighting the country.
The ‘Turn the Tide on Plastic’ campaign is not about making people feel guilty about the plastic they depend on. It’s about getting everyone to take the small daily steps that can make dramatic inroads into reducing the amount of plastic that are used. And it’s about putting pressure on government to introduce legislation to tackle the problem of waste plastic.
Since start of the campaign, there has been a 85% drop in the number of plastic bags used in the UK – that’s 25 billion fewer disposable bags being used in Britain since 2015. And the campaign has helped to force successive governments to take action. In 2018, PM Theresa May pledged to dramatically reduce plastic waste over the next 25 years and unveiled proposals for a levy on all disposable packaging. The Daily Mail has also successfully campaigned for toxic plastic microbeads to be banned from cosmetic products.
In 2008, The Mail launched a trailblazing campaign to rid Britain of the scourge of plastic supermarket bags, prompted by a heartrending, shaming picture of an endangered turtle entangled in one, which was used on the front page. The success of our ‘Banish the Bags’ initiative has been nothing short of phenomenal.
The Daily Mail
