The ripple quickly became a wave. Now a strong tide is moving against the excess of plastic in our everyday lives. I congratulate the Evening Standard’s Last Straw campaign, which has helped encourage restaurants, bars, cafés and tea shops to say “no” to plastic straws. Angered by the mounting evidence that single-use plastic is choking rivers and oceans, people have a clear message for business — “time is up”.
I know, as a father and a business leader, how hard it is for individuals and families to live a plastic-free life. It takes commitment and zeal to be single-use plastic-free all the time. From bathroom products to coffee cups, mid-morning snacks, plastic cutlery, water bottles and single-use plastic bags, the stuff is everywhere.
This plastic culture is, though, melting fast. We’ve had fantastic support for our call to #PassOnPlastic, with commitments from the likes of Ben Fogle and Cara Delevingne. Individuals can’t do this on their own, though. Large corporations must help deliver the sea change.
It won’t happen overnight. Plastic has been seeping into every crack in our global economy for far too long. Just because we can’t solve the whole problem instantly doesn’t mean businesses can’t take some meaningful steps right now.
A year ago, we launched Sky Ocean Rescue. We began with a series of documentaries on Sky News and took the view that we had an extraordinary opportunity, as a media organisation reaching 100 million people, both to transform our business and encourage people to follow our lead. At the time, plastic in the oceans was an important issue, although pretty far down the list of global concerns. Now, it’s impossible to ignore.
We’ve had to take a hard look at our operation. First, we cut out plastic containers for food and drink across our sites. Already we’ve saved nearly half a million bottles.
Next, we became the first FTSE-100 company to make a commitment to be single-use plastic free by 2020 — everything from how we build studios and sets to the way our products are manufactured and delivered to our millions of customers.
We’ve also committed £25 million to a plastic innovation fund which will invest in technologies and develop ideas that will aim to eradicate single-use plastics from supply chains around the world.
The fast-moving current of opinion has helped others make major changes too. Recent announcements from Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Iceland are encouraging. The tide has turned. Every company must now play its part. Last year was about awareness-raising. This must be the year of action.
Jeremy Darroch is the chief executive of Sky
