Our Environment, Animal Tips & the Great Outdoors

“I just want to say one word to you. Plastics.”

Remember that classic line from the 1967 movie “The Graduate”? 

Had Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) followed that advice, today he might be a wealthy, retired CEO. 

But he’d also have been part of what is a world-wide problem for waste and climate change. Plastic is everywhere, and it’s here to stay – literally – because it can take from five (cigarette butts) to 20 (grocery bags) to 450 (water bottles) to 500 (disposable diapers) years to degrade. And plastic never totally disappears, it breaks down into microplastics, often smaller than 5 millimeters long, that end up in water, on farmlands and inside our bodies. Microplastics have been found on top of the Pyrenees Mountains and in the bottom of the Mariana Trench. 

We’ve all seen promos telling how dangerous six-pack rings and balloons are for wildlife. Microplastics are just as bad or worse; when eaten they build up inside the animal’s body to cause serious or fatal issues.

Realistically, we all know we’re not going to give up our plastics. We’ve also all seen plastic tossed everywhere that it shouldn’t be. But there are things that everyone can do to reduce plastic waste, and groups who can help us do it.

Beyond Plastics works for a cure

Former EPA administrator Judith Enck has a long history of environmental activism, including being very involved with the passage of the New York State bottle bill. In 2019, to address her long-time concern about plastics, she focused her communications experience and talent to launch the nonprofit Beyond Plastics. It is attached to Bennington College, where she leads a plastic pollution course each year. 

Communications director Melissa Valliant described the group’s efforts to reduce plastic use and waste, “Our purpose is to greatly reduce the production and use of plastics nationwide. We use education and advocacy at a grassroots level to organize towards policy change.”    

Valliant noted that there are now over 150 local affiliates across the country, “Community organizations that want to partner with us in being committed to reducing plastic waste. We supply them with tools to make it happen.” Those tools include kits on how to write letters to the editor and elected officials, model bills for states showing blueprints on how to effectively reduce through production, meeting with groups, sending fact sheets on all aspects of the issue, and explaining the contribution of plastics to climate change.

“Local input is a big part of how to make moves around the country,” she added, as is “getting involved as much as possible. That is especially important now.” Some of that involvement includes aggressively advocating policies by “putting a ton of resources into fighting for recycling and reduction acts in New York and New Jersey.” 

Beyond Plastics’ web site notes that plastic disproportionally burdens people of color. Valliant explained: “Plastic production facilities are typically sited in areas where low-income families live. That is intentional, because companies know those communites have few resources to fight, so residents are forced to deal with air pollution and safety issues such as fires and explosions.”

She also cited high cancer rates in areas of Texas and Louisiana where plastic production as well as waste management facilities, landfills, and incinerators dealing with plastic bring an extra level of pollution.

Does Beyond Plastics see the use of plastic lessening? “The truth of the matter is it’s just not going to significantly lessen, or go away, until companies stop producing so much of it, and forcing it into people’s hands. Companies are not going to stop unless policies are put into place. It’s just going to get worse.” Plastic has been produced on a large scale since the 1950s, and production is expected to double by 2040. “It gets more concerning as its health impacts are realized,” Valliant worried.

She went on to declare that “We need to build awareness of the excessive amount of single-use items, to make people start to notice how much of that is in their lives.” Straws are a serious issue, “But just part of the bigger one we need to address.” She listed alternatives, which can go beyond straws, “Plenty of options – no straw at all, bamboo, steel.”

Beyond Plastic’s concern is that “Unless we change course, this is going to be a plastic-filled world.” Plastic production is a huge contributor to climate change, adding four times as much to that as the entire aviation sector. “If we reduce the amount produced, we’re not only improving the environment and human health, we’re also helping climate change. The two are intrinsically linked.”

Does recycling work?

Recycling, which has been a New York State law for decades, is followed to varying degrees. Does it work? Valliant said, “Recycling works; plastic recycling does not.” The reason for that is that while materials like paper, glass, and aluminum can be recycled indefinitely, plastic cannot. Plastic can only be recycled once, into another plastic bottle; after that it becomes such low quality it can only go into uses such as fabric in carpets, for example. In the United States we recycle less than 6% of our plastic, and because of flaws in execution, Valiant believes that the proportion will never go into the double digits.

Another drawback is that because of the chemicals used (about 16,000 of them by different companies, in different combinations, color, and polymers), plastic has to be sorted and separated, which is impossible to support economically.  

Bottom line, are current efforts helping? Valliant believes they are: “I think any effort, no matter how small makes a difference, even if it’s just the tiniest drop in the biggest bucket. If everybody contributes a little, the situation will still be better than it is now.” Despite drawbacks, recycling is encouraged, but make sure to follow guidelines of what can and cannot be reused. “Every effort is good, but at the end of the day, it’s the companies that need to improve the most.”

Valliant added, “Efforts on local and state levels will be more important than ever. People often underestimate the power of their own voice. Grass roots advocacy is where big changes have the most impact.”

Some of her suggestions include having more reusables school lunches, church, and community events and getting rid of unnecessary single-use plastic pieces altogether. Find what you individually can do and how to encourage others to cut back at the Beyond Plastics.org app. 

“You’d be surprised what one person can do to get the momentum going.” 

Plastic islands

Midway Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean is midway between miles of ocean to the next land. You’d think you’d see no signs of civilization. You’d be wrong. A CNN article eight years ago pointed out that looking down a beach you’d see a motorcycle helmet, mannequin head, umbrella handle, and a flip flop, left there by the tide, which brought them from a huge plastic garbage patch in the ocean. 

And those are the things you can see. For decades, plastic pieces in the ocean have been getting smaller and smaller. There are five subtropical gyres of trash, mainly plastics, in the North and South Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Estimates of their size range from as large as Texas to the size of Europe or the United States. 

A large part of their contents comes from fishing industry debris. Synthetic netting is estimated to make up almost half of the Great Pacific mass. Some evidence makes the United States the third largest culprit in coastal area plastic pollution.  

Collection efforts have removed many tons of debris, however as the plastic breaks down, removing the microplastics becomes more and more difficult.

What’s being done in our area

Dutchess County’s Single-use Plastic Pollution Prevention campaign ran in 2019 and 2020 as a collaboration of the Dutchess County Division of Solid Waste Management and Cornell Cooperative Extension, with funding CCE obtained. Deputy Commissioner Kerry Russell said that even though that campaign is over, the division continues to educate about the importance of reducing the use of single-use plastics, through educational presentations and public outreach. “Reduction and reuse are key components of the campaign.” 

They have seen an increase in public awareness and a growing interest in living more sustainably, an important part of that being not buying or using single-use products. Russell noted that, “There are many easy ways for people to cut down on single-use plastics. Remember the mantra: “Refuse it if you can’t reuse it.”

Some of Russell’s recommendations are to use your own reusable shopping bags, straws, eating utensils, and water bottles. “Check out the refillery shops throughout Dutchess County,” where you bring your own container. “The less you buy in plastic containers, the less you will need to dispose of. A number of alternatives help reduce single-use plastics.” 

Groups interested in learning more about reduce/reuse/recycle are invited to contact the Division of Solid Waste Management to schedule a Recycling Educator presentation.

The Columbia County Reduces Waste BYO Initiative is part of the BYO-US Reduces National Network, started with a group of people motivated to work towards reducing climate change and plastic pollution. 

Zero Waste Columbia and the Ghent Climate Smart Communities Task Force have a goal of making bring your own containers the norm, thus reducing single-use wares and packaging. To this end, they are enlisting food businesses to display the Columbia County Reduces Waste/Bring Your Own sticker, letting people know they will fill your reusable container.  

Their brochure notes, “Our dream is to create an area-wide reuse and refill ecosystem that will enable Columbia County to significantly reduce waste.”

Their brochure points out that bringing your own containers can include, but not be limited to, cloth bags for groceries, your own coffee mugs and water bottles, reusable take-out containers for food, and bottles for soap, shampoo, and conditioner purchased from bulk sources.  

Other active groups are the Berkshire Environmental Action Team and the Berkshire Zero Waste Initiative.

They recently held a screening and panel discussion called “Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics”. It was co-hosted by Beyond Plastics and Columbia County Reduces Waste-Bring Your Own. 

The solution is social and political. Recycling must be improved, but the key factor is getting totally away from single-use plastic. Plastic-free initiatives are at work in many areas. If there’s not one near you, go ahead and start one. The environment will be glad you did! •