"Greenpeace proposes to rename International Soup Day on 5 April to Plastic Soup Day. And here is why. Nowadays, the word 'soup' stands not only for the dish, but also several other things: 'plastic soup' is a mixture of plastics floating in the ocean; soup is also an abbreviation for single-use plastic (SUP), that is disposable plastic", the Greenpeace Russia spokesperson said in a statement.
According to the statement, our oceans get contaminated with about 4.8 million - 12.7 million tonnes (metric tons) of plastic annually. Plastic fibers have even been found in the stomachs of amphipods in the Mariana Trench. A new amphipod species found in the deepest trench on Earth was thus named Eurythenes plasticus.
"We suggest renaming the unremarkable Soup Day to Plastic Soup Day in order to draw even more attention to the problem of plastic pollution, which needs to be urgently addressed. Otherwise, soon, our ordinary soup could actually contain more plastic than food", Irina Skipor, Greenpeace Zero Waste media coordinator, said as quoted in the Greenpeace Russia statement.
Greenpeace Russia said it was calling for limits on disposable plastic use in Russia.
According to Greenpeace International, globally, only 9 percent of plastic gets recycled. Greenpeace claims that most of "recycled" plastic packaging waste is downcycled into non-recyclable products, and very little of it actually gets converted back into the packaging.