What's on your grocery list, John?

Cereal, yogurt, granola bars, maybe even ice cream? One thing's for sure -- it's all bound to come with more plastic packaging than you know what to do with. The plastic bag inside a cereal box, the cup or squeeze tube of yogurt, the plastic wrappers on each individual granola bar -- even the plastic lining inside a tub of ice cream.

It's almost impossible to leave the grocery store without a cart full of plastic packaging -- and our environment is paying the price.

That's why we're calling on grocery stores and food companies to take action. Tell General Mills: Cut down on plastic food packaging.

Some of this plastic packaging is readily accepted by your local recycling program. But others -- plastic bags, plastic wrappers and plastic-coated cardboard? Not so much.1

Plastic packaging makes up 46% of all plastic waste, and too much of it is ending up polluting our environment.2 It litters our parks, rivers and oceans, where it's easy for a bird, sea turtle or whale to mistake it for food.

To protect our wildlife from plastic, we need to stop producing so much of it. And major corporations need to take responsibility for the plastic products and packaging they use.

General Mills makes many of the foods that might populate your grocery list: Cheerios, Yoplait yogurt, Nature Valley granola bars, Betty Crocker cake mixes and more.3 By using less plastic in its packaging, the company can make an impact on our country's overall plastic pollution problem.

Tell General Mills to reduce its plastic packaging today.

General Mills has already pledged to make its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2030.4 But when just 5% of plastic is getting recycled into new products, it's clear we need to reduce the amount of plastic being made in the first place.5

Companies can use less packaging overall, replace plastic packaging with other, more easily recycled materials, and even develop plant-based, compostable alternatives to plastics. Other food and grocery companies have set or committed to set plastic reduction goals. General Mills can and should do the same.

Add your name to our message to General Mills today.

Thank you,

Ellen Montgomery

1. Laura Sullivan, "Recycling plastic is practically impossible -- and the problem is getting worse," NPR, October 24, 2022.
2. Matt Leonard, "Packaging makes up nearly half of plastic waste," Industry Dive, March 26, 2019.
3. "Making food the world loves," General Mills, last accessed October 17, 2023.
4. "Packaging," General Mills, last accessed October 17, 2023.
5. Laura Sullivan, "Recycling plastic is practically impossible -- and the problem is getting worse," NPR, October 24, 2022.