This is long overdue. Versions of the Plastic Waste Reduction Act have been introduced annually in the General Assembly for nearly a decade now, while plastic pollution, particularly in the oceans, has only gotten worse.
Forget reusing and recycling, the new mantra is: Reduce, reduce, reduce. It turns out that the concept of plastic recycling was a product of the plastics industry aimed at distracting environmentally concerned citizens from the problem. It gives me no pleasure to admit that I bought into it for decades. I wrote about this on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day when Frontline ran its exposé “Plastic Wars” where we learned that less than 9% of plastic had ever been recycled and now China has stopped buying any of it. From my prior piece:
In addition to the aforementioned alarm and rage, I now feel like a gullible dupe. I was not aware that the whole recycling program with its ‘chasing arrows’ numbers was a scam perpetrated by the plastics industry. From All Things Considered on NPR,
. . . the industry promoted recycling as a way to beat back a growing tide of antipathy toward plastic in the 1980s and ’90s. The industry was facing initiatives to ban or curb the use of plastic. Recycling, the former officials told NPR and Frontline, became a way to preempt the bans and sell more plastic.
Much of the state has already adapted to local bans without any big problems. Alex Kuffner writes in Sunday’s ProJo:
With bans in effect in 17 cities and towns in Rhode Island, including Newport, Providence and Cranston, more than half the state’s population is already subject to restrictions on the types of bags they use in checkout lines.
Big thanks to the bill’s lead sponsor for the fifth year running, Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee of South Kingstown, who sits on the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Let your state rep know you support this initiative.
Unfortunately, that ProJo article ends with the four words no advocate ever wants to hear at the end of a hearing: “. . . held for further study.” This is usually the death knell for most legislation — the procedural equivalent of “we are taking the cat to live on a farm.”
But let’s not give up. And the person who most needs to hear from you is House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi. Let’s tell him to stop kowtowing to the industry lobbyists and listen to the people of Rhode Island. Tell him to let the legislation out of committee and bring it to the floor for a vote.
Email here: rep-shekarchi@rilegislature.gov
Shekarchi phone: (401) 222-2447