Plastics Crisis and Recycling

Before PECA was founded, many of us belonged to PPoFT’s Plastic Action Group. Although we now devote our energy to the Climate crisis through PECA, we maintain our interest in issues related to the Plastic Crisis and Recycling.

Get Harmful PFAFs Out of Our Lives

PFAFs are one of the most hazardous chemicals to human health, yet theylurk in just about everything we purchase and consume. Watch this video about PFAFs and/or read this article to find out how to avoid them.

Resources

Recipes for homemade products to reduce your use of plastic:

• condiments (mayo, ketchup, mustard)

• salad dressings (all kinds)

• yoghurt and ricotta cheese

• bread (sourdough, including english muffins)

• household products (all purpose cleanser, dishwasher detergent, weed killer)

Quick Links to Other Resources

Organizations for Reducing Plastic:

• LOCAL:

  • Waste Not Nevada County (group started by Shirley Freriks)

• STATE:

  • Californians Against Waste

  • Zero Waste California

• NATIONAL:

  • Beyond Plastics

  • Plastic Free July

  • Break Free From Plastics

  • Upstream (working for a “reuse economy”)

  • The Plastic Pollution Coalition

  • Greenwashing Index (keep advertising honest)

Sustainable Packaging

• Video from Waste-Ed: Smart Boxes Fight Packaging Waste

• Check out Clover Sonoma’s 100% plant-based milk container

• 13 Zero Waste Stores for Plastic and Packaging (from trvst)

• Beyond Plastics information on how to help your local meals on wheels program to ditch disposables. In the Auburn area, Seniors First runs a strong meals on wheels program.

Legislation

• 2023-2024 California Legislative Session:

  • AB 1290 (Product Pollution Prevention & Packaging Responsibility Act) is a bill that addresses the safety of plastic packaging. It would prohibit the use of PVC, PVDC, PET-G, or pigmented PET packaging, AND the addition of PFAS, carbon black, and oxodegradable additives in plastic packaging. This eliminates several of the most problematic forms of plastics that contaminate recycling or post a risk to human health.

  • SB 244 (Right to Repair) will ensure that consumers have the ability to fix the electronics that they own or have them fixed by a technician, preventing e-waste and saving consumers money. This bill will require manufacturers of consumer electronics to provide replacement parts, diagnostic information, and service literature to consumers and third-party repair businesses.

  • SB 353 (Bottle Bill Expansion) is a bill that supports our state's recycling infrastructure by incorporating 46 oz and larger juice containers into the Bottle Bill, resulting in an additional 100 million to 200 million containers recycled each year! It also authorizes CalRecycle to adjust the processing payment to recyclers to more reflect the recycling market, aligning processing payments with the current, actual cost of recycling.

Documentaries/Videos

• Frontline: Plastic Wars

• The Story of Stuff: The Story of Plastic

• UN Environment & their Clean Seas campaign: Plastic Pollution: How Humans are Turning the World in to Plastic

• Ted Ed: A Brief History of Plastic

• Cheddar: How Much Plastic Is Really In Our Bodies?

Recycling information

• What we learned on our MRF Tour

• Recycling in Placer County

• Do not throw fats, oils, and grease out with your trash! Go here to find out how to properly dispose of them so that they do not contaminate the recyclables.

• CalRecycle

• Earth911: has an extensive database of sites that accept household hazardous waste and recyclables - just choose the “Where to Recycle” button and put in your zip code

• Terracycle

• NexTrex film and bag recycling program through local stores; click here for a list of participating stores, then call your local store to see if they are participating!

• You can recycle Don Francisco Coffee bags and pods through their terracycle program; click here to join the program.

• Recycling electronics, appliances, and fitness equipment at Best Buy in Auburn. Click here for information.

• The Hearing Aid Project refurbishes hearing aids for low-income people nationwide.

Lessons for Educators

• How Easy is it to be Reasonable Plastic Consumers? - A card sort activity original created for the 7th grade, but easily adaptable to all ages (including adults)

Listen to This!

• Reduce, reuse, recycle is getting a fourth R: Recirculation - listen to the 4-minutes story from NPR about out people acting locally have created a recirculation program widely used by their community.

SOME Articles about Plastic

• Bonta Opens Major Investigation Into Plastic Pollution (April 29, 2022 Sac Bee article regarding potentially misleading claims by plastic manufacturers that plastic products are recyclable, when most are not)

• The Big Problem With Plastic (September 2021, Consumer Reports)

• The Solving Plastic Issue of Yes! Magazine (Summer 2021)

• How Plastic Became a Plague (May 2019, Scientific American)

Books

• Can I Recycle This? by Jennie Romer

• One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of Gambia - a children’s book by Isatou Ceesay

Plastic in the Oceans

• 4Ocean: an organization actively engaged in cleaning up and documenting plastic in the oceans; sells products created by recycling the plastic they collect in order to fund their clean up activities.

• 5 Gyres Project

Opportunities for Action

Reduce Plastics-Letter Writing Campaign

Are you concerned about the tsunami of waste plastics happening around the globe?? Join a letter writing campaign to ask retailers to reduce the amount of plastic containers and products on their shelves, especially single-use items. Click here for everything you need to get started from the comfort of your own home. Anyone is welcome to join this campaign, please spread the word!

Explore Voluntary Simplicity

• Simplicity Circles (created by Barb Munn for Sierra Foothills UU in 2019)