June 23, 2019
A few months ago, I was chatting with a legislative staffer at the Capitol and the topic turned to straws. More specifically, the nifty collapsible, reusable drinking straw she had on her desk.
Her boss, among the legislators who helped pass last year’s bill that requires restaurants to take steps to reduce plastic straw use, had given everyone in his office a reusable straw.
Since then, I’ve seen a wide variety of reusable straws at check-out stands and gift shops and in use by colleagues and strangers. The reusable straw hasn’t made its way into my purse yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time before some family member, struggling to think of a responsible gift, drops one of them in the mail to me. (Note to generous family: That is NOT a hint.)
Over the years I’ve watched my own use of plastic in other ways go into decline.
First, many years ago I stopped using single-use plastic shopping bags and instead carry a variety of cloth bags when I go foraging in the grocery store. My little car’s boot carries too many cloth bags. They apparently multiply like mushrooms in that dark space.
More recently, I added smaller see-through fine mesh bags for produce to the collection. I’m still having a hard time remembering to use the mesh bags, but when I do, I know I’m moving a step closer to breaking the plastic habit.
Water in plastic bottles? Nooooo. Not anymore. Not in my fridge. Plastic wrap for sandwiches? There’s still a roll in the drawer, but it’s rarely used and wax paper and parchment paper vie for the favorite wrapping for storing cheese.
When I buy things, I try to buy those with less packaging. And when the packaging requires that I pull out scissors to free some little widget from a sea of plastic casing, I complain. (Note to manufacturers: I know how to find you even when you don’t include your email address on the packaging.)
I know I’m not alone in my efforts to reduce my plastic use. Public opinion surveys in the U.S. and Europe all show that people don’t like waste and support reducing plastic.
It’s hard to miss the stories about how bad plastic is for our environment, the marine mammals it is killing, the shores it is polluting, the waste collection machinery it is clogging. That’s one reason that we’ve been fortunate in California to pass some important legislation, like the single-use plastic grocery bag ban bill in 2015 and last year’s plastic straw reduction bill.
This year, two identical bills will get at reducing packaging in products sold in California, Senate Bill 54 (Allen) and Assembly Bill 1080 (Gonzalez). Both bills have passed in their houses of origin and are moving through the second house.
Meanwhile, the underbelly of plastic use and the flaws in plastic’s recyclability have been increasingly exposed, adding pressure to do more faster to reduce plastic use.
Another reason to reduce plastic is oil and gas. Yes, those grimy substances whose extraction, processing and use make them among the most necessary things to unhook our societies from if we’re to make real progress against air pollution and climate change.
Oil and gas and oil refining byproducts are among the components of plastic. Cut back on plastic and you cut back on our dependence on oil and gas.
Will we ever have a world entirely free of plastic? Not likely. There are plastic medical devices, for instance, for which there are no good alternatives. New knees and hip joints will likely always include plastic.
But we can do a lot more to cut single-use plastic out of our lives. The latest packaging bills are another important step in that direction.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Phillips
Director
Sierra Club California is the Sacramento-based legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the 13 California chapters of the Sierra Club.
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