Plastic Free July Challenge
It’s time for ACTION!
Fact. The only way to reduce single-use plastic waste is to recycle it or stop producing it altogether. It’s also a fact that polystyrene foam foodware and plastic bags can’t be recycled—they either end up littered in our communities and on our beaches or in a landfill where they will linger for centuries and, worse, degrade into tiny particles called micro or nano plastics that get into our water, soil, and eventually in our food, then into our bodies.
Therefore, LWV Chicago, as a member organization of the Coalition for Plastic Reduction (CPR), is asking for your help. We need each and every one of you to fill out all of the one-click action alerts and petitions listed below and let your state legislators know loud and clear that we want the Worst of the Worst Single Use Plastic to be banned from the state of Illinois. There are three bills pending that we need to continue to build support for so that they will be considered later this year: HB 2376 (Foam Foodware Ban), HB 4448 (Plastic Bag Ban), and SB 2211 (Plastic Bag Ban).
Complete these action alerts and petitions
IEC: Kick Single-Use Plastic Now: Action Alert & Letter to Legislator
IL PIRG: Beyond Plastic: Tell your state representative to Phase out Foam
Alliance for the Great Lakes: Tell Your State: Keep Plastic Out of Our Great Lakes
Environment Illinois: HB 2376: Say Farewell to Foam
Next…
Check out our Tips and Tricks for Sustainable Living and try a product or two that is plastic-free and/or plastic packaging-free. We have found products and ideas to start you on your plastic-free journey, but by no means is this a comprehensive list. Be curious, try new products, shop in zero-waste stores, then let us know what you find.
Need more Information?
Read: Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work, New Report Reveals that U.S. Plastics Recycling Rate Has Fallen to 5%-6%
Listen: Waste Land, Recycling! Is it BS?
Watch: We are all Plastic People Now, The Story of Plastic, Toxic Tours
Join the Environmental Action Committee as we work to justly affect climate change with the ultimate goal of preserving democracy by maintaining the health of our one and only planet and all that lives on it. Email us at environment@lwvchicago.org for access to our next meeting on July 15 @ 4 pm.