Focus on Arts and Ecology

Jon, In the 1970s, Coke and Pepsi began what would become a landmark shift in their operations: They started producing more plastic bottles and fewer glass ones.1 We're all familiar with what happened next: Countless consumer products have adopted plastic over other materials. But plastic is far harder to recycle than glass, aluminum or paper -- and it sticks around in the environment forever. Of the 9 billion tons of plastic produced in the world since the 1950s, 7 billion tons of it have ended up as trash.2 So what can we do, now, in 2022, to turn the tide on plastic pollution? Well, if your bathtub is overflowing, the first thing you do is turn off the tap. Here's a deeper look at PIRG's work -- work we couldn't do without your support -- to combat our country's "throwaway" culture and eliminate the single-use plastic "stuff" we can all live without. Rewind ... ... to 1971, just a year after the very first Earth Day. That was the year Oregon passed its first-in-the-nation Bottle Bill. Under the law, people pay a deposit when they buy certain beverage containers, and can then return the empty containers to stores and redemption centers to receive the refund value for each container returned.3 It was a landmark shift in our relationship with "stuff" -- a creative, concrete and effective way for communities to stop allowing common single-use items like soda and beer cans to litter our open spaces. In other words, it was a commonsense solution to a shared and urgent problem -- which made it exactly the kind of action that the newly forming PIRG network was looking to bring to more of the country. Progress and opposition A 5-cent container deposit law might not seem like much -- but its ability to affect positive environmental change is undeniable. In 2009, more than a billion beverage containers were recycled under the Bottle Bill in Oregon alone. Recycling those beverage containers saved the equivalent of 24 million gallons of gasoline in energy, and that recycling also reduced greenhouse gas emissions equal to the amount of carbon dioxide produced by 40,000 cars.4 But industry interests such as container manufacturers and regional supermarkets have historically been opposed to Bottle Bills and other plastic-reduction policies. Our partner group MASSPIRG had to wage a decade-long campaign and weather millions of dollars in opposition spending before it won Massachusetts' Bottle Bill in 1982.5 Still, PIRG's strategy of organizing everyday people around commonsense ways that we can move our society beyond plastic, waste and litter has won steady progress over the past 50 years. Today, 10 states carry bottle deposit laws, 11 have banned single-use plastic grocery bags, and eight have gotten rid of polystyrene foam food containers.6 Last year we led the charge to pass an important new truth in recycling law here in California. And our national network helped pass bans on some of the worst single-use plastics in Washington, Virginia and Colorado, as well as the first producer responsibility laws in the country. In spite of the special interests trying to block progress toward zero waste; in spite of the seemingly unending deluge of single-use plastic that Americans are confronted with in virtually every aspect of our lives; in spite of the ways our plastic pollution crisis can often seem insurmountable; the movement toward a better future is undeniable. Right now, in 2022, a third of all Americans live in a state with a robust ban on one or more types of single-use plastic. What's next? As CALPIRG and our national network win more progress toward zero waste, we're constantly setting our sights on bigger and bolder ways to make change, including: Raising tens of thousands of voices like yours to call on major corporations to move beyond plastic. In 2022, a grocery trip or package delivery shouldn't come with a mountain of single-use plastic packaging waste. But corporations like Whole Foods and Amazon can make single-use plastic all but unavoidable -- which is why we're working to get these and other big industry players to start doing their part to combat plastic waste. Championing legislation that puts the responsibility of plastic waste back where it belongs. For decades, major plastics producers have successfully maintained a status quo that essentially lets them off the hook for dealing with the waste their products inevitably become (and leaving consumers to pick up the tab). But the tide is beginning to turn -- we're building a steady drumbeat of momentum for legislation that would put more of the financial responsibility for plastic waste management onto the producers themselves. Advocating for nationwide action, including legislation that would ban single-use plastics from all national parks, as well as the federal Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, which would be our country's strongest measure against plastic waste to date.7,8 Clearly there's still a lot more work to be done -- especially given the recent rise of new industry tactics to keep Americans hooked on single-use plastic, such as the process deceptively termed "chemical recycling" that's really just burning plastic to make dirty fuels. But the progress we've made over the past 50 years gives us hope that, together with supporters like you, we can achieve a future where nothing that we use for five minutes is allowed to pollute our environment for hundreds of years. Thank you, Jenn Engstrom State Director P.S. We rely on citizen support to fund all our vital work in the public interest, from moving California beyond plastic to protecting public health and the environment from toxic chemicals. Will you donate today and help ensure we have the resources we need to continue these campaigns in the months ahead? 1. Gene Smith, "Coca-Cola trying a plastic bottle," The New York Times, June 4, 1975. 2. Robert Ferris, "The world has made more than 9 billion tons of plastic, says new study," CNBC, July 20, 2017. 3. "Oregon's Evolving Bottle Bill," Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, last accessed April 1, 2022. 4. "Oregon's Evolving Bottle Bill," Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, last accessed April 1, 2022. 5. Josh Barbanel, "Carey signs law requiring 5-cent bottle deposit," The New York Times, June 16, 1982. 6. "Beyond Plastic," U.S. PIRG, last accessed April 1, 2022. 7. "H.R.5533 - Reducing Waste in National Parks Act," Congress.gov, last accessed April 1, 2022. 8. "S.984 - Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021," Congress.gov, last accessed April 1, 2022. Your donation will power our dedicated staff of organizers, policy experts and attorneys who drive all of our campaigns in the public interest, from banning Roundup and moving us beyond plastic, to saving our antibiotics and being your consumer watchdog, to protecting our environment and our democracy. None of our work would be possible without the support of people just like you.

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