As the climate crisis around us worsens, people have taken action in their daily lives to do their part in reducing waste, recycling and doing what they can to save the environment. The one behavioral change that has taken the country by storm is replacing plastic single use straws with reusable ones made from a variety of materials. Many restaurants and bars have stopped giving out straws to patrons while members of the general public are carrying their own straws with them. Many people jumped onto the reusable straw movement, especially as plastic straws were identified as the culprit of harming sea turtles in our oceans; the hashtag #SaveTheTurtles was born and even more abandoned plastic straws. While this movement is encouraging and important for many reasons, the general public can not be held responsible for resolving the consequences of our climate crisis. The individual behavioral changes matter but with the timeline we are facing, they will not be enough to turn things around before it is too late. The pressure should be on corporations, manufacturers, and governments to make changes with their environmental impacts in mind.
The City of Rockville is also on track to pass their own ban of plastic straws, after a statewide ban failed to pass earlier this year. Plastic straws would still be sold in grocery stores for home use but at restaurants, bars, and any other eatery, plastic straws would only be available upon request. On a more national scale, last summer Starbucks began providing plastic lids for cold drinks that resembled hot drink lids, no straw needed. Customers were excited to see the company’s quick response to the no straw movement but others pointed out that the overall amount of plastic used hadn’t been reduced much at all. The popular coffee chain is now advertising reusable cups for purchase at the registers, as well as offering a “personal cup” discount, though it is only 10 cents.
Maryland recently became the first to pass a statewide ban on expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam single-use products, such as foam plastic cups and to-go containers. The ban does not include large foam packaging, or foam products designed for multiple use, however, it should result in a dramatic decrease in the amount of foam litter along roads and in our waterways.
With this in mind, the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) comes into play. EPR is a concept where manufacturers and importers should take on a considerable amount of the responsibility for the environmental effects of their products and their product life cycles. This can mean working towards zero waste facilities and reducing the manufacturing of single use products and replacing them with ones with longer lifespans. Starbucks, for example, as mentioned above is offering the reusable cup, as well as the discount, to promote waste reduction. With coffee chains being such a large contributor of single use plastics, we can also turn to Dunkin’ and see they have a similar reusable cup policy, as well as switching away from foam cups for their hot drinks. These front end changes may not be much more than marketing or profit building ploys but they at least set the standard for other eateries to pay attention to their plastic use and waste production. Large scale, widespread responses, changes and accountability will make a much larger difference in the fight for our environment than what individuals can be expected to do.
Maria Janush, Communications and Water Intern