This blog was first published as an opinion piece in the Connecticut Mirror on April 15, 2019. Suddenly, recycling is costing cities and towns across Connecticut money. The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities reported that China Sword – China’s new policy of refusing United States’ plastic and paper recyclables – has flipped the economics of Connecticut’s… Continue reading It’s Time to Update Connecticut’s Bottle Bill
Several states, and roughly three hundred U.S. cities and towns, have banned single-use plastic bags. Now, several states in New England, including New Hampshire, are considering similar bans. Kirstie Pecci joins The Exchange to talk more about what we can do to reduce plastic pollution.
Plastics are everywhere, and they aren’t all recyclable. Until there’s a new system that creates a structure for using less plastic from the beginning, here’s a handy guide to what can and can’t go in the bin.
If Connecticut wants to cut disposal and recycling costs, and if the state wants to increase redemption rates, and improve the quality of recyclables to avoid prices tanking in the future, the Bottle Bill is one of the best tools we have.
American recycling is in a crisis. But this crisis is a chance to create a better system for tomorrow. Today’s products and their packaging are often made from plastic and designed for disposal. By holding the producers of those products accountable for their polluting products, we can create a system that’s better for our communities and better for our planet.
Take the Zero Waste Challenge and fight toxic landfills by cutting plastic in your life.
Kirstie Pecci of the Conservation Law Foundation said the movement to ban plastic bags is “really rolling right now.” She said advocates are not asking people to give up all plastic products but that most plastic is unnecessary and plastic bags are “one of the most replaceable items and should be the most low-hanging fruit.”
The Rhode Island Task Force to Tackle Plastics has finished up its work with a recommendation for a statewide ban on single-use plastics. We support such a move, but it’s just the start of what needs to be done to deal with plastic pollution.
“I love all of New England,” Kirstie Pecci, senior fellow at the Conservation Law Foundation, wrote in a regional update email Tuesday. “I am busting my butt every day to move towards Zero Waste through the whole region.”
Stop landfills from poisoning our air and water.
