7-Eleven, the world’s largest grocery store chain, has over 68,000 locations worldwide. Each store contributes to the devastating plastic waste crisis by supplying customers with single-use plastic bags with every visit, while animals are forced to try to survive in life-threatening habitats that are rapidly becoming plastic wastelands. Please urge 7-Eleven to phase out single-use plastic bags before it is too late!

Every year, eight million metric tons of plastic waste enters the world’s oceans, including single-use plastic bags. A staggering 1 trillion single-use plastic bags are used annually worldwide, which is equal to an unimaginable 2 million bags per minute.

While most bags are used for just a few minutes, it takes roughly 500 years for many of these bags to degrade. However, know that they will never actually biodegrade, but instead will turn into toxic microplastics which continue to pollute the environment forever.

Up to 80% of plastic in the oceans drifts away from coastal areas and is pulled out to deeper water. Plastic waste is responsible for killing over 1 million marine animals every year. Currently, an estimated 100 million tons of plastic waste can be found in the oceans. If this disastrous trend continues, plastic waste is expected to outweigh all of the fish in the oceans by 2050.

Hundreds of species of marine animals, including fish, seabirds, turtles, sharks, whales, sea lions, and dolphins, are at risk of entanglement, choking, or starving as they’re forced to live in marine habitats that are rapidly becoming inundated with plastic waste.

Sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and unknowingly consume them as do whales and other animals. Seabirds also mistake pieces of bags and other small pieces of plastic waste for food. As their stomachs fill with plastic that isn’t passed out of their systems, animals slowly starve to death. Powerful images created by international marine wildlife conservation organization Sea Shepherd Conservation Society highlight how animals become trapped or entangled in bags causing painful injuries, strangulation, suffocation, and death.

Single-use plastics bags not only harm the environment and animals when they are discarded; their production is also extremely destructive. The United States alone uses 100 billion plastic bags every year; the average American family uses a staggering 1,500 plastic bags per year—which requires 12 million barrels of habitat-destroying oil to manufacture. Only 1% of these bags are ever recycled. The vast majority end up in landfills, and ultimately, the oceans.

When 7-Eleven stores throughout Thailand encouraged customers to opt for reusable bags, 169 million single-use plastic bags went unused in just two months! If all 7-Eleven locations offered customers the option of purchasing reusable bags made of recycled and environmentally-friendly materials, countless animals could be spared painful deaths caused by plastic! 

What YOU Can Do:

With thousands of locations worldwide, 7-Eleven has an unprecedented opportunity to drastically reduce the amount of plastic waste that is destroying ocean habitats and killing defenseless animals in the process. Please comment on 7-Eleven’s social media accounts and then fill out the form on this page to send our email urging the convenience store to ban single-use plastic bags!

1. Comment on 7-Eleven’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Example: “Please phase out single-use plastic bags and offer reusable options at all 7-Eleven locations to save marine animals from entanglement, choking and slow starvation as well as the environment! Every year, one trillion single-use bags pollute habitats all over the world!”

2. Email 7-Eleven’s President and CEO, Joseph M. DePinto by filling out the form on this page.