It’s time to take New England’s work reducing plastic pollution to the next level. CLF’s Zero Waste Project is launching our campaign to ban single-use plastic bags in all six New England states to create less pollution, cleaner coastlines, and healthier communities for all.
“There’s no reason why single-use plastic bags need to be a part of our daily lives,” said Kirstie Pecci, Director of the Zero Waste program at CLF. “Most bags end up filling our landfills, littering our communities and waters, and polluting our air when burned up in incinerators. The citywide ban in Boston is a good start, and we must also ensure that any ban does not burden our elderly or low-income neighbors. We have a real opportunity to end this waste and pollution throughout New England and we must act now.”
“Plastic bags are pervasive in the environment. They litter our communities, they blow around,” she said. “They fall apart eventually and those little bits of plastic, those microplastics, are then in our soil, in our freshwater, in our oceans.”
”Plastics create unsightly litter on land and are deadly in our oceans,” said Amy Moses, Vice President and Director of CLF Rhode Island. “Single-use plastics are made from fossil fuels and pollute our environment at every stage of their manufacture, use and disposal. We can’t recycle our way out of this problem. Rhode Island needs to ban these materials, and this task force is an important step in the right direction.”
The Global Climate Action Summit is underway in San Francisco, California. Leaders from across the country – including CLF’s President, Bradley Campbell – and the globe have gathered to exchange ideas about how we can address the most pressing issue of our time: climate change. The Summit is also challenging cities and towns around the… Continue reading Five Ways Cities and Towns Can Slash Trash and Fight Climate Change
Governor Raimondo’s “Task Force to Tackle Plastics” is a good start for the state to start taking on plastic pollution. But to really face the problem head-on, Rhode Island must ban single-use plastics and push the state closer to Zero Waste.
Updated on Friday, July 27. As a runner, I know what it’s like to reach the end of a long race. That last mile is when a marathon truly does become a sprint, and it takes tremendous will and energy to push yourself over the finish line. That’s a lot like the end of a… Continue reading Six Bills, Three Weeks: Massachusetts Legislators Need to Hear from You Today
The Massachusetts state legislature is considering a bill that would ban plastic bags across the Commonwealth. More than 80 cities and towns in the state have already ousted this plastic pollution from their communities – now our legislature can standardize this practice by enacting a ban statewide.
… The Massachusetts-based Conservation Law Foundation, in its own statement, praised the ordinance while shifting attention to the noticeable silence on the matter that has come from the Mayor’s Office in recent days. “We are optimistic that Mayor Walsh will follow the lead of 59 other Massachusetts cities and towns,” the statement noted, “and sign… Continue reading Boston City Council Votes Unanimously To Ban Plastic Bags
“More than 350 million single-use plastic bags hit the streets of Boston this year alone, most of which end up filling our landfills, littering our communities, and polluting our air when burned up in incinerators,” said Kirstie Pecci, Director of CLF’s Zero Waste Project. “This new ordinance protects the health of our neighborhoods and our environment, while at the same time easing the burden on taxpayers and saving local retailers millions. We are optimistic that Mayor Walsh will follow the lead of 59 other Massachusetts cities and towns and sign this ordinance into law.”
