Plastics contribute to climate change

By
The Martha's Vineyard Times
-
7

To the editor:

Whenever you use a plastic bottle, it affects the environment. This may not affect you specifically, but it will affect generations to come. Our generation. Plastics contribute to climate change. They generate heat-trapping gases at every stage of their life cycle. It is unhealthy for animals, fish, and humans. Single-use plastic is a convenience, not a necessity. 

Please, our habits need to change. We have been working for two years to educate the public about the dangerous effects of single-use plastics in our environment. Last year we were successful in banning plastic water and soda bottles under 34 ounces in the towns of West Tisbury, Chilmark, and Aquinnah. 

We now have our bylaw on the warrant for town meetings in Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, and Edgartown. We hope that you will vote in favor of this bylaw. Even though it might not affect your world, it will be affecting ours. We are tired of seeing dead animals with plastic bits in their stomachs. We are tired of adults not doing enough to help. We are tired of knowing that plastic contributes to climate change, and knowing this — still nothing has changed. This ban is a small step in combating climate change and plastic waste, but it is a step in the right direction. We ask that you vote with the greater good in mind, not just your own convenience (or your own wallet).

The Kids of Plastic Free MV

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7 COMMENTS

    • I think Andrew will be proud of these children for standing up for their future and spearheading positive change.

  2. You two like to bait me but you have nothing substantive to contribute. No I don’t take advice from young kids.

  3. I would simply like the Kids to understand the other side of the coin. Plastics are essential to modern life. Plastics made computers, cell phones, and many lifesaving advances of modern medicine. Lightweight and good for insulation, plastics help save fossil fuels used in heating and in transportation. Inexpensive plastics raised the standard of living and made material abundance more readily available. Without plastics many things that we take for granted might be out of reach for all but the richest Americans. Replacing natural materials with plastic has made things cheaper, lighter, safer, and stronger. Plastics have a valuable place in our lives, and scientists are attempting to make plastics safer and more sustainable like plant based plastics to create substances that are more environmentally friendly than conventional plastics. Plastics that are truly biodegradable. Innovators are making recycling more efficient, and they will perfect a process that converts plastics back into the fossil fuels from which they were derived. Plastics are ubiquitous but they are an important part of our future. Plastic does no throw itself into the environment. It does not escape into the environment. It does not simply jump into the ocean. People throw plastic trash into the environment. Plastic cannot be recycled unless it is collected, sorted and sent to a facility for processing. Carelessness and poor stewardship throws plastic waste into the environment where it cannot be collected. It is not a plastic problem—it is a people problem. Worldwide nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day. An additional 20-50 million are injured or disabled. People do not blame roads or the steel(and plastic) used to make cars. We would do well to stop blaming inanimate objects and instead understands mans fallen nature.

    • Andrew, we would all do well and be happy if you’d stop lecturing and try to stay on the topic of single use plastics, which, you should know, do not include computers, medical devices, and cell phones, things that people tend not to throw in the ocean. Discussions of single use plastics also should not encourage you to proselytize, which, you should also know, turns off everyone, especially children. These kids deserve encouragement, not off-topic rants about the fallen nature of mankind.

  4. I appreciate the energy and passion of these youths. However they need more education based in science and fact. Their ban simply shifts the environmental impact from plastic bottles to aluminum cans that contains polystyrene, glass bottles that have a much larger carbon footprint in the environment and boxes waters that contain 20% plastic, paper and aluminum. Just a feel good ban with no measurable environmental impact. More education of the public and changing consumers habits is a better approach. Have they thought about contacting Dylan Fernandez regarding moving the state to put a deposit on these bottles. We should be looking at compostable alternatives as well there ban leaves no room for this option in the future. Currently, Coke’s Dasani water is a 30% plant based bottle, how does the ban affect that bottle or future ones that are compostable. More on education less bans.

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