The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Chip away at plastics, one change at a time
Take the first step, maybe by refusing that plastic straw the next time a waitress tries to hand you one. Better yet, say, “No straw,” when you order your drink.
If you’re already doing that, take a second step. You could, for example, commit to choosing items with less plastic packaging at the grocery store — loose veggies in your own reusable bags, spaghetti sauce in a glass jar, large tubs of yogurt instead of individual serving containers. Or get in the habit of bringing your own refillable takeout cup to the coffee shop.
Whichever of the myriad ways you decide to “refuse, reuse and reduce” the throwaway plastic in your life, just starting with one action and building from there will help keep up the momentum that’s emerged around this issue in Connecticut over the past year.
“This issue is finally getting the attention it deserves, and people are starting to realize that plastic recycling is no longer going to be a moneymaker for cities but will cost money,” said Betty Ball, an artist who helped found the group Skip the Plastic Norwalk in 2018. “Now, when I go to the grocery store, everybody’s bringing their own bags. It’s like the singleuse plastic bags were never there.”
In response to a petition drive by her group, the city of Norwalk enacted a ban on singleuse plastic bags at retail outlets that took effect on July 8 — nearly a month before the statewide tax on plastic bags was slated to begin Aug. 1 as the prelude to a ban starting in 2020. Ball said when her group started the effort, many people were skeptical that an urban community like Norwalk would opt for a plastic bag ban, assuming it would only fly in more affluent suburban communities like Westport and Greenwich.
But awareness about the persistence, prevalence and plague of plastics in our environment is at an alltime high. That’s thanks to grassroots groups like Ball’s, initiatives of the Mystic Aquarium and the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk, marine scientists sharing their research about microplastics, and movies like “A Plastic Ocean” shown in communities around the state.
“There are a lot of people now who totally get it,” said Ball.
Another contributor to this growing awareness was the “Don’t Trash Long Island Sound”/“Break the SingleUse Plastic Habit” campaigns the past two summers sponsored by the Long Island Sound Study, Connecticut Sea Grant and Mystic Aquarium. This year, the three partners are being joined by the Connecticut Fund for the Environment/ Save the Sound, The Nature Conservancy and SoundWaters in a reprise of the successful campaigns. A volunteer beach cleanup on Aug. 8 at Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven will kick off the sixweek campaign, leading into International Coastal Cleanup Day Sept. 21.
Like last year, the campaign will include giveaways of colorful “Protect Our Wildlife” stickers of Long Island Sound wildlife for reusable water bottles and travel mugs, and social media posts with the hashtags #DontTrashLISound and #LISound about people taking positive actions to reduce plastic pollution. A third hashtag, #SingleUsePlastic, is being added this year.
“Local community groups and municipalities really responded to our messages to break the singleuse plastic habit and protect our wildlife by helping to make the Sound free of plastic waste,” said Robert Burg, communications coordinator for the Stamfordbased Long Island Sound Study. “They helped to share these messages through our social media posts, which is why we had a big 60 percent jump in our social media audience from a similar campaign we held in 2017.”
Facebook and Twitter impressions posted during the campaign increased from 82,000 in 2017 to 135,000 in 2018, he noted. He hopes for another big jump this year.
Restaurants that have switched from cheaper throwaway plastic cups and takeout containers to paper alternatives deserve to be celebrated in this campaign. Clyde Ripka, coowner with his wife Kristin of Ripka’s Beach Cafe in Norwalk, says quitting plastics can be hard and expensive, but worthwhile.
“We started replacing plastic straws with paper last year, then we went to paper ice cream cups and soda cups, and we’ve tried to get rid of the majority of singleuse plastic containers for sauces,” he said. “The goal was to get rid of as much as possible.”
Finding suitable alternative products has taken considerable effort, he said, and has added about 5 percent to the cost of supplies. He’s still searching for an affordable substitute for plastic utensils for takeout orders.
“I just do it because it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “I’ve surfed all my life, so the health of the ocean is important to me.”
Both Ball and Ripka are role models for the attitude more of us need to take. They owned their own part in the daunting problem of worldwide plastic pollution and started doing what they can to change it, a little at a time. Others are joining in.
“We all have to start somewhere,” Ball said. “Now, just in the city of Norwalk, we’ve stopped using 30 million plastic bags a year. Only 1 percent of those were getting recycled, and 100,000 bags a year were ending up in Long Island Sound, breaking down into microplastics and clogging storm drains.”
The problem is far from being solved, but progress is being made. Let’s keep it going.
Just starting with one action and building from there will help keep up the momentum that’s emerged in Connecticut over the past year.