Tiny bits of plastic make their way into our food chain.  These bits of plastic can adhere to persistent organic pollutants like DDT and PCB’s--both suspected cancer causing agents in humans.  Ideally, plastic is stored indefinitely in engineered landfills. However, too much plastic does not make it to our landfills. It ends up littering our streets, our bayous, and eventually pollutes our oceans.  Plastics do not biodegrade in our lifetime; they possess their chemical composition for several human generations.  To compound matters, they become brittle and break into smaller pieces from exposure to sunlight. These small microscopic pieces of plastic make it almost economically difficult to remove from our oceans, condemning future generations of people and marine life to living with oceans clogged with plastic.

Is there anything ordinary people can do?  Yes, Houston Sierra Club began a campaign to collect single use plastic data from local restaurants.  By identifying the types of single use plastic restaurants pass on to consumers, we can help build a database of useful information ultimately destined for the public to use as it selects where to eat, where to order take-out, or from where to bring home leftovers. 

The process is simple, visit our facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/HSCenvironment and https://www.facebook.com/groups/123755137663951/ to fill out the single use plastic data collection form when you go out, take out, or bring home leftovers.  It is easy, and presents itself as a way to engage servers and managers.  The more data we collect, the more power we have as consumers. We can put our money where our mouths are---literally and figuratively---by choosing restaurants passing less single use plastic on to customers.

Look for meetup opportunities to canvass local restaurants in 2018.