Organizing for Plastic Alternatives (OPA)

 EcoFest in Chicago Highlights Demand for Change    47th Ward Alderman Matt Martin hosted the 3rd Annual EcoFest on Chicago's north side on Saturday, June 01, 2024.  The purpose of the Ecofest was to provide local residents with the opportunity to recycle hard-to-recycle materials, meet with representatives from ecologically sustainable organizations, purchase and receive perennial native plants, and build community around the concept of ecological sustainability.  Organizing for Plastic Alternatives (OPA) tabled during the event and met with dozens of individuals who are ready to make the transition away from single use plastics. OPA seeks to educate, generate common sense legislation, and act toward a single use plastic free future. Based on our surveys, petitions and informal conversations, the mood of most consumers (85%) is that we should be shifting away from single use plastics and toward more sustainable materials that decompose or are easily recycled or...

PFAS Law Suits Set to Drop   The New York Times (5/24/24)reported recently that plastic and chemical industries can expect a string of lawsuits that could rival or even surpass the tobacco company settlements.  Corporations have been producing and using PFAS (aka forever chemicals) for decades, fully aware of the toxic nature of PFAS (known carcinogen). A defense lawyer, according to the Times, warned that the lawsuits will be "astronomical".    PFAS are chemicals used for a variety of purposes including teflon non-stick pans, rain proof clothing, etc. However, they never decompose and are highly toxic in nature. They are now everywhere: drinking water, food, Antarctic snow and in the blood of every American. We have been drinking PFAS chemicals for years.   The US Environmental Protection Agency began to address this last year and is now requiring corporations and municipalities to remove PFAS from our drinking water sources. Many environmental activi...

 Zero Waste Lobby Day in Springfield Environmental and health advocates from around the State of Illinois traveled to Springfield on Wednesday, May 15, to lobby on behalf of several bills designed to curb the flow single use plastics into our waterways, land, waste streams and even bodies.  On tap for this legislative session are a number of policy initiatives that address the growing problem of single use plastics including the following: HB2374 & SB100 (Farewell to Foam) : This bill seeks to end the practice of using styrofoam to serve and package food. Styrofoam is widely regarded as the worst of the worst forms of fossil fuel-based packaging and has already been banned in numerous states.  HB4448 & SB2211 (Plastic Bag Ban) : This bill would prohibit most merchandisers from distributing plastic bags at retail outlets. Customers would now be responsible for bringing their own cloth bags or reusable/stitched handle bags. No more single use plastics being released...

 Industry Plays Over-sized Role in  UN Ottawa Plastics Negotiations  The United Nations has taken up the problem of plastics and is in the midst of negotiating an international treaty ostensibly to begin to limit the production, distribution, use, and disposal of the overwhelming amount of plastics in our waterways, land, waste sites, and the bodies of both humans and animals. As can be expected, industry played an oversized role , having significant and virtually unencumbered access to conference proceedings while activists, academic researchers, and environmental groups were held at the fringes of the conference. Companies like Dow and ExxonMobil. These companies are eyeing extraordinary profits from the production and sale of plastics, the burden of managing plastic waste is left to us - tax payers and the governments we elect to try to dispose of the waste. Corporations like Dow and ExxonMobil went all in on promoting themselves as being crucial to the life an...

 Plastics Treaty Negotiations in Ottawa  Oil friendly nations and corporations, including the United States, are lobbying hard for voluntary reductions in plastic production, distribution and waste. At the same time, environmentalists and others who care deeply about human and environmental health are lobbying for stricter legislation and policies that face down the growing threat of doubling or tripling of plastic production in the next decades. Voluntary actions will no longer cut it. This is a ruse by corporations to continue their endless exploitation of fossil fuels for financial gain. We desperately need legislation that limits production and distribution of single use plastics with clear and accountable targets and goals Already the nation is dumping the equivalent of 2,000 trash trucks worth of plastic waste into our oceans and water ways. This in addition to the millions of tons of plastic waste already clogging our waters, fields, and even our bodies.  However, ...

 Corporations have tried to blame consumers....it's really them! In a recent article in Grist Magazine , we learn again that it's not individuals who are to blame for the plastics crisis. It is the corporations that knowingly continue to produce plastic and pass the debt on to consumer and municipalities.  Corporations know that plastic recycling is a non-starter, yet they still try to make us believe that plastics are and always have been recycled into useful new items. In fact, less than 8% of plastics nationally are recycled meaning that more than 90% of plastic is just waste that never breaks down. Most plastics are too complicated in their configuration to be recycled in the first place.    Our municipalities then bear the brunt of collecting, sorting, and hauling the plastic waste. Our environment bears the brunt of plastic waste literally everywhere. And we humans bear the health consequences by ingesting plastic into our system every day. We know that plastic...