The Future Was Plastics
Dear Leading Ladies,
Those of us who live in Massachusetts can get a bit self-satisfied, okay, smug, about our state’s superior progress and positions on important issues. Take, for example, the right to choose. The undoing of Roe v Wade will not overturn the legality of abortion in Massachusetts. Here, the right to choose to continue or terminate a pregnancy is assured. And then look at guns. Massachusetts outlawed the sale of AR-15-style guns and, in 2021, a bill was filed to prevent the manufacturing of such weapons in Massachusetts, thereby encouraging Smith and Wesson, the country’s second largest gun manufacturer, to relocate its headquarters in Tennessee.
Illustration by Maggie Chiang for Sierra Club
What a disappointment it is, then, to discover that Massachusetts is not among the leaders in combating the problem of single-use plastics. In Massachusetts, bans on single-use plastic bags are currently decided at the municipal level. According to the Sierra Club, as of May 2022, 152 towns and cities in Massachusetts (out of 351) had enacted some regulations on single-use plastic bags, thereby impacting two-thirds of the state’s population. Some of these municipalities also ban polyethylene produce bags, as has been done in France, Austria, and Italy.
What difference does it make?
According to Mass PIRG, “one of the worst forms of plastic pollution is polystyrene foam, the kind used in foam cups and take-out containers, which most of us call Styrofoam. Polystyrene foam is made of fossil fuels and can’t be recycled. It breaks apart easily, but it takes hundreds of years to fully degrade — which means that every piece of foam ever made is still out there and will continue to pollute our planet for hundreds of years to come.” And then there are plastic straws. “Americans use 175 million straws daily, almost enough to circle the globe,” MassPIRG writes. Since straws are small and can get stuck in recycling machinery, most recyclers do not accept plastic straws, so they just end up in landfills. And, of course, there are plastic bags. “A plastic bag is used for an average of 12 minutes, but can persist in our environment, and pollute our communities, for generations. Last year, 50 percent of the bags we used ended up in landfills and 8 billion ended up in the environment.”
Where do other states stand?
Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Maine, Vermont, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and Hawaii have all enacted statewide single-use bag legislation, while Montana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Florida, and Massachusetts have legislation in progress (last introduced in our state in 2019).
Foam containers have been banned in Washington, Colorado, Maine, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Legislation is in progress in Oregon, California, Montana, Illinois, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Hawaii.
The West Coast states have already banned plastic straws, as have Vermont and New Jersey, while in Montana and Colorado, a ban is under consideration.
The good news
The good news is that on June 9, 2022, the Massachusetts legislature's Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture Committee redrafted this session's lead bag ban bill and advanced it to the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means as H.4826/S.2896. It includes a mandated fee of not less than 10 cents for all paper and reusable bags sold. This is considered by advocates to be an effective incentive for consumers to bring their own reusable bags when they shop. An interesting part of the bill, which is not due to go into effect until 2025, says that “A food facility shall not provide a customer with disposable food service ware unless such food service ware is recyclable, biodegradable or compostable; provided, however, that drinking straws that are not recyclable, biodegradable or compostable may be provided to a customer upon request by the customer.”
This proposed law is clearly a good start. We’re not sure it will give us bragging rights, though. Not when California is poised to pass a new bill that aims to reduce plastic production for single-use products such as shampoo bottles and food wrappers by 25 percent starting in the next decade! The bill, which was introduced earlier this month, is focused on production rather than recycling, in an effort to stem the millions of tons of plastic polluting our oceans, killing wildlife, and infecting our drinking water, according to a recent Boston Globe article. The bill would “apply to producers of products like laundry detergent, toothpaste, and food wrapping, as companies like Amazon that package production for mailing,” the article said. Even before the reduction in production is due to begin, the bill calls for a ban on the use of Styrofoam and similar products by food vendors. Democratic Senator Ben Allen, author of the bill, doesn’t expect to get business support, but he is hopeful business leaders won’t fight it either.
The way we see it, the gauntlet has been thrown down. Let’s help Massachusetts accept the challenge to do as well as some of the other states who are taking the lead.
What can we do?
Clearly, the bill under consideration doesn’t go far enough. But incremental progress is still progress. Let’s support what is being proposed and then work for more.
We were reminded that our lawmakers may not have our priorities at the front of their minds. We wrote to state Representatives Gerald Parisella and Joan Lovely of Beverly, Representative Tram Nguyen of Andover, and Senator Becca Rausch, chairperson of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (the committee that sponsors the bill currently under consideration) to ask them about pending legislation concerning banning single-use plastics.
Rep. Parisella replied: “I will look into potential legislation, however, I do know bills have been filed to expand the bottle bill. I cosponsored a bill to put a deposit on nip bottles as I see them all over the place and I think this could be a way to clean up our communities and allow them to be recycled.” (Editor’s note: nip bottles are too small to pass through recycling equipment and can only be disposed of through trash, according to Beverly City sources.)
We received a form letter from Sen. Rausch, stating that she receives a great deal of mail and, therefore, can only respond to those who live in her district.
We haven’t heard from Rep. Lovely.
Rep Nguyen’s office acknowledged receipt of our inquiry and said they would get back to us as soon as possible.
To make our voices heard, and have our priorities make an impression, we recommend contacting those in power.
Email the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, addressing Chairperson Rodrigues, to ask that they acknowledge the fiscal as well as environmental benefits of S.2896, and that they move it forward expediently. Write the same email to the House Committee on Ways and Means, addressing Chairperson Michlewitz.
Email or call your MA State House Representative and State Senator to let them know that you support the draft circulating as H.4826/S.2896 and want them to help ensure it passes. Find contact info for state reps and senators here.
Thanks to the Surfrider Foundation for this information and guidance.
Some closing thoughts
Before closing, we want to share some random facts about plastics that remind us that there is life without plastic, despite the advice given to The Graduate!
Plastic bags did not come into use in grocery stores until the 1980s.
They were considered more environmentally friendly since paper bags required cutting down trees and destroying forests.
Costa Rica eliminated all plastic bags, bottles, cutlery, straws, and coffee stirrers in 2021.
And just announced! The Canadian government is banning companies from importing or making plastic bags and Styrofoam takeout containers by the end of this year, their sale by the end of next year and their export by the end of 2025.
And, finally, we want to know who is going to invent the app that reminds us to bring our reusable bags into the store?!?! That would be worth millions.
Therese (she, her)
Judy (she, her)
Mary (she, her)
Leading Ladies Executive Team
Leadingladiesvote.org
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org