Can We lower Greenhouse Gases from Our Own Home? Focus on Plastic

Photo Courtesy of Faith Model

Part III: Purge Plastic

Stephanie Miller on her book Zero Waste Living the 80/20 Way: The Busy Person’s

Guide to a Lighter Footprint.

Interview by Faith Model

FM:  Purging plastics seems so pressing and so overwhelming, especially after this past year where we witnessed so much single plastic use because of the pandemic. But why is plastic the scourge of the Earth? What makes it so harmful on so many levels?

SM: Plastics—especially single-use plastics—are so ubiquitous and so hard to avoid. And we saw more of it than ever during the pandemic.

Plastics are harmful in many ways. First, there’s the obvious effect on our ecosystems. We’ve seen the pictures of ocean gyres as large as countries and the close-up picture of the sea turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nostril.  But besides the damage to our fragile ecosystems, there are many other ways in which plastic does harm.

Plastic production is a large contributor to climate change and is toxic to the health of residents and workers near plastic production facilities. Plastics are an environmental justice issue, as most petrochemical facilities and plastic-burning incinerators are located near communities of color, low-income communities and Indigenous communities. And even for those who do not live near such facilities, data shows we are all ingesting and breathing in microplastics, the health effects of which are only now being studied.

These issues are what drive many individuals in the zero waste movement to do all they can to reduce their contribution to the plastics problem. It is certainly what drives me to make my best possible effort.

But it would be unfair to assume that individuals can solve the plastics crisis. There is so much that needs to be done by government and businesses to get at the root of the problem. It’s very encouraging to see some of the legislation that is starting to surface at the state and national level. This year, Maine became the first state to establish an “extended producer responsibility” (known as EPR) program requiring companies that create consumer packaging to pay for the cost of recycling it. A similar bill in Oregon was recently signed by the governor.

At the national level, the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021 would do a lot to drastically reduce the amount of plastic pollution in the U.S. by reducing plastic production, phasing out disposable plastics, and increasing recycling rates including by shifting responsibility for waste management and recycling to manufacturers. It’s worth taking a moment to let your members of Congress know that passing this bill is important to you. It matters a lot.

FM: What are some of the ways you’ve reduced plastic in your own household? 

SM: There are some really easy ways to reduce your household’s plastic: We shop for seasonal food as much as possible and frequent our local farmer’s markets. What I love about the farmer’s market is that you can almost always bring your own containers and bags—vendors are happy to save on their own packaging. Plus the food is local, fresh and delicious.

When we do shop in grocery stores, I look out for items that have package-free, “naked produce” options, and dried goods in bulk. We bring our reusable cotton bags for everything from apples and lettuce to rice and cashews. We throw the reusable bags inside the grocery bags we keep in our car.

We also avoid beverages in plastic bottles. I take my reusable water bottle with me everywhere. For juice or milk, cardboard-based containers like Tetrapak are more easily recyclable than plastic. In our quest to avoid single-use packaging, we were excited to find a local dairy farm that delivers milk in glass bottles that can be returned empty the following week!

For household goods, these are some of the easiest switches to make:

• Use bar soap instead of using liquid soap. And buy soap package free, if possible.

• Use cloth napkins instead of paper on a daily basis instead of just for special occasions. This saves on plastic packaging as well.

• Avoid using paper towels by creating a non-paper towel system: Use a stack of washcloths as substitute paper towels, and wash them with your other towels.

FM: I’ve been fed up with how many “health food” companies are still using plastic packaging. So I recently wrote to one of them and asked them about it. I received an enthusiastic response stating that they had shifted from petroleum-based plastic to “industrial compostable plant-based material.” It sounds encouraging, but I wonder if it’s just another form of greenwashing… How do you feel about bioplastics?

SM: So, first of all, I think it’s fantastic that you wrote to the company and told them you would prefer they not use plastic packaging. No matter what business decision they end up making, you are a paying customer and they care what you think.

I have really mixed views about bioplastics and other so-called compostable materials. As long as we, the customers, are the ones responsible for disposal of packaging, it’s unrealistic to assume that we have access to “industrial composting facilities,” which means this packaging will likely not actually be composted but contribute to the waste stream. However, I do find it encouraging whenever we can move away from petroleum-based plastic. The production process for plastics is so toxic that it’s always worth exploring alternatives.

Next up: Recycling