Tag: plastic

Confronting the Plastic Pollution Crisis 

by Faye Park, President, ConnPIRG

Support bans on the worst form of single-use plastic! One in three Americans now live in a state with a ban on at least one form of single-use plastic — including here in Connecticut.

Hold plastic producers accountable for the waste their products become by supporting producer responsibility legislation at the national and state levels. PIRG helped lead the charge to win groundbreaking producer responsibility laws for packaging in Colorado, California and Oregon — and Connecticut could be next.

One of the most impactful things we can do to protect our planet and our health is stem the tide of plastic pollution.

As the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon produces a ton of plastic trash in the form of packaging. The company has said it’s committed to reducing its plastic waste – but the amount of plastic packaging it uses in America is actually growing, not shrinking.

New research shows that Amazon produced 208 million pounds of plastic packaging trash in the U.S. in 2022, a 10% increase over the prior year.

We need Amazon to get its plastic production under control and turn to more sustainable packaging alternatives. To keep our work going strong, we need everyone who believes in a zero-waste future to come together.

Update on Plastic Bag Ban

From our friends at Citizens Campaign for the Environment

SB 1003–An Act Concerning Single-Use Plastic and Paper Bags has received a public hearing and now must be voted out of committee before the 3/29 deadline. There is an Environment committee meeting scheduled for this Monday, but the agenda has not been posted yet. We need everyone to contact the Environment Committee leadership and urge them to vote this bill out of committee as soon as possible!

Tell the Environment Committee to Pass a Bag Ban for the 21st Century! SB 1003 would ban plastic checkout bags in Connecticut, without addressing paper bags. This is a good first step, but it can create an unintended consequence—encouraging consumers to switch to paper bag use, which also adversely impacts our environment. The goal is not to switch from plastic to paper; the goal is to switch from single-use bags to reusable bags!

Additionally, we must push back against so-called “compostable” plastic bags! The Governor’s proposed plastic bag surcharge contained a loophole exempting “compostable” plastic bags from the charge. This is blatant green washing! ASTM D6400 compliant plastic bags are certified compostable in an anaerobic digester. This does not suggest that these plastics will ever break down if they escape into the environment. We must make sure that the committee does not create loopholes for this material!