The Story of Plastic Resources

Resources from The Story of Plastic panel discussion on June 24, 2020

SPONSORS:

• HoCo Climate Action - www.facebook.com/HoCoClimateAction

• Howard County Sierra Club - www.facebook.com/hocosierraclub & MD Sierra Club Zero Waste Team

• Less Plastic Please - www.facebook.com/lessplastichocomd

PANELISTS:

• Alex Cole, community organizer, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition & ASH Working Group

• David Pinsky, senior plastics campaigner, Greenpeace USA

• Sarah Nichols, Sustainable Maine director, Natural Resources Council of Maine

• Josh Feldmark, director, Howard County Office of Community Sustainability

• Ali DySard, environmental & partnership manager, MOM’s Organic Market, Mom’s Slide Show

• Brooke Lierman, Maryland delegate, District 46 – Baltimore City, www.brookelierman.com
  

TAKE ACTION:

• MDelect.net - know your officials - add their contacts in your phone

• County level: Follow updates on the plastic bag fee bill at livegreenhoward.com.

  • Done: Help pass a plastic straw ban bill. - contact lessplasticpleasehoco@gmail.com to get involved.

  • State level: Support statewide plastic legislation, including the statewide ban on plastic carryout bags and Extended Producer Responsibility laws.

    • Sign up to get updates from the MD Sierra Club Zero Waste Team and MD Sierra Club Beyond Gas Team.

• Federal Level: Sign Sierra Club petition for the Break Free From Plastics Act

RESOURCES BY TOPIC:

1. Environmental Justice

2. Cheap Fracked Gas Converted to Cheap Plastics

3. The Plastics Problem

4. The Recycling Problem

5. What about Bottle Recycling

6. EPR to Hold Producers Responsible

7. Federal Break Free From Plastics Bill

I. Environmental Justice

• The Economic Injustice of Plastic - Van Jones. TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch. 2010.

• NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program

• Greenpeace toolkit: Take Action to Defend Black Lives

• The Racial Inequity in Clean Energy and How to Fight It: Inside Clean Energy

• Q&A: A Pioneer of Environmental Justice Explains Why He Sees Reason for Optimism: Inside Climate News. June 2020.

• Environmental Justice in Maryland Report: Environmental Law Clinic, University of Maryland. 2015.

  • “Achieving environmental justice continues to be a significant challenge in Maryland. The state’s efforts over more than 15 years have produced very little progress in addressing environmental disparities in communities of color and low-income communities. However, current national efforts and a growing awareness of environmental justice offer a unique opportunity to rethink Maryland’s approach to this important issue and create a strategy for meaningful progress.”

• Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health at University of Maryland School of Public Health, Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health

• Fighting for Environmental Justice on the Streets of Baltimore: Time magazine article on Destiny Watford. 2016.

• What Is Environmental Justice? - NRDC video

• Environmental Justice: Peggy Shepard at TEDxHarlem - Peggy Separd, co-founder of weact.org
  

II. Cheap Fracked Gas Converted to Cheap Plastics

• Appalachian Storage Hub (ASH) Working Group - ASH Videos, Donate for this work

• Fracking Endgame: It is Literally Us or the Frackers - Food and Water Watch. 2019. Full PDF Report

• The Plastics Pipeline: A Surge of New Production is on the Way - Yale 360. Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Gardiner, Beth. 2019.

• Promise of Cracker Plants Comes Up Short - Youngstown Business Journal. 2020.

• Halt the Harm Network against Fracking

III. The Plastics Problem

• Story of Plastic from the creators of the classic Story of Stuff

• Beyond Plastics - www.beyondplastics.org

  • Plastic Pollution Virtual 2020 Film Series - Six exceptional films

• Plastic Free July Campaign - www.plasticfreejuly.org

• Break Free From Plastic - www.breakfreefromplastic.org

• Ending Plastic Pollution - Conservation Law Foundation (CFL.org)

• Plastic Issue - Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL.org)

• Plastic and Climate: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet - Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL.org). 2019.

• The Plastic Problem - PBS News Hour

• Plastic Wars - PBS Frontline

• Microplastics Are Literally Raining on Our National Parks and Wilderness Areas

• How to Eat Less Plastic - Consumers Reports. 2020.

• Planet or Plastic? - National Geographic. Multi-year series.

• Model local bill - The “Plastics Trifecta” (foam food containers, plastic bags, plastic straws) - Beyond Plastics

• The Truth About Plastic Bag Bans - Hite. John. 2020.

• Plastic Bag Laws - plasticbaglaws.org - resource for city and states

• Greenpeace Resources:

  • Greenpeace's plastic-free future campaign

  • Smart Supermarket report

  • Circular Claims Fall Flat report

  • How the Plastic Industry is Exploiting Anxiety About COVID-19

  • Safety of Reusables During COVID-19

IV. The Recycling Problem

• Keep America Beautiful Campaign - Sourcewatch.org

• More Recycling Won’t Solve Plastic Pollution - Wilkins, Matt. 2018. Scientific American

• Four Ways to Improve Our Worsening Waste Recycling Crisis - Nichols, Sarah. 2020. Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM)

• Circular Economy - Nune, Christiana. 2020. National Geographic

V. What about Bottle Recycling

• Bottle Bill Resource Guide: www.bottlebill.org

• Bottled Up: Beverage Container Recycling Stagnates (2000-2010). Container Recycling Institute (CRI). 2013.

• Art Installation: (beverage containers used by an average person annually)

• Carbonlite Closed-Loop Plastic Bottle Recycling plant tour video

• Deposit Return: How it Work video - from Reloop Platform. Long version.

• Curbside Recycling is Failing Us, but there are alternatives that work - Budris, Kevin. 2020. Conservation Law Foundation

• Cullet Comparisons - Collins, Susan. 2017. Resource Recycling.

VI. EPR to Hold Producers Responsible

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Packaging and Paper Products: The Basics - Northeast Waste Management Officials’ Association (NEWMOA) and Northeast Recycling Council (NERC)

• Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging legislation (proposed, Maine)

• White Paper on Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging and Paper Products - Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) and Northeast Waste Management Officials’ Association (NEWMOA). 2020.

• EPR for packaging in Maine Blog - Conservation Law Foundation

VII. Federal Break Free From Plastics Bill

• Federal Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act (H.R.5845, S.3263) Video on sponsors’ introduction of the bill; Bill Summary; Text of both versions of the bill

• Sign Sierra Club petition for the Break Free From Plastics Act

• Sign this petition: Ask your members of Congress to co-sponsor the bill

• Beyond Plastic Webinar: Watch the webinar recording; View the Slides; Press Packet with Good Summary