Reducing Plastic Waste Begins with Relaunching the Bottle Refill System
Wrestling humanity away from single-use plastics will not be easy. But we can start by reducing our reliance on single-use plastic beverage containers.
![reduce plastic with refillable glass bottles](https://www.clf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Detail-glass-bottles-reuse-refill_Photo-cottonbro-Pexels-600x375.jpg)
Wrestling humanity away from single-use plastics will not be easy. But we can start by reducing our reliance on single-use plastic beverage containers.
Plastic is everywhere – even in the places you’d least expect, like chewing gum, tea bags, wet wipes, receipts, and microwaveable popcorn bags. Yet, manufacturers continue to make more and more plastic each year – even though how plastic is made fuels a toxic cycle of production, consumption, and disposal.
In the decade since Irene, Vermonters have shown a tremendous capacity to rise to the challenge of becoming more resilient, just as we have in responding to the challenges of COVID. We cannot afford to lose pace. Adopting clear metrics for resilience and adaptation to accompany the Global Warming Solution Act’s emissions reductions targets would help ensure we are doing everything possible to slash our greenhouse gas pollution and create a climate-resilient Vermont.
Our region has seen hurricanes and tropical storms before, but, as we’ve just witnessed, it doesn’t have to be a storm of that magnitude to do significant damage. This year’s wet summer has shown that severe storms are becoming more common and intense, and they will only grow more frequent as the climate crisis deepens.
Chase Whiting practices on CLF’s Strategic Litigation team, where he holds climate polluters accountable in court for their roles in causing and failing to avert the climate crisis. Chase joined Strategic Litigation after serving for several years on CLF’s Clean Energy and Climate Change team, where he litigated against multinational corporations, utilities, and state agencies… Continue reading Chase Whiting
As communities across the country continue to recover from Hurricane Ida and its remnant rains, we look back at the last I-named storm to wreak havoc on our region: Tropical Storm Irene. Ten years ago, Tropical Storm Irene turned a late August weekend into a disaster of historic proportions. Communities from central New York to… Continue reading The Power of Water
Our regional electricity grid operator, ISO-New England, must stop supporting the dirty fossil fuels at the root of the climate crisis.
Gas stoves, which use dirty fossil fuels, put our health and environment at risk by releasing toxic gasses into the air and atmosphere.
PFAS – or forever chemicals – are being detected in drinking water sources throughout New England. We need to find ways to better regulate these toxic chemicals.
The past year has shown us what we can accomplish when faced with unprecedented upheaval. Now we are focused on driving forward a future that is equitable and healthy for all – while also confronting the most urgent environmental threats in the here and now. The work we do together in the next five years… Continue reading Conservation Matters Summer 2021: Year in Review