The Village of East Hampton adopted an ordinance last month requiring that restaurants and takeout food businesses only give their patrons plastic utensils, condiment packages and coffee lids when they are specifically requested by the customer.
It’s an effort to cut down on the amount of plastic waste ending up in garbage cans, along roadways, on beaches, and in the ocean and other water bodies.
The passage of the ordinance resulted from a campaign titled “Skip the Stuff” waged by the Eastern Long Island Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and East Hampton students.
Under a heading “What We Are Fighting For,” the Surfrider Foundation chapter on its website lists “Plastic Reduction” as one of five main issues. (The others are “Ocean Protection,” “Beach Access,” “Coast and Climate” and “Clean Water.”)
It continues: “Plastics are poisoning our ocean, planet, and us.”’ Under “The Problem,” it says: “Plastics are all around us and a part of our everyday lives. They’re also increasingly inside us — microplastics have been found in our lungs, blood and throughout the human body. An estimated 11 million tons of plastic enter ocean waters every year.
“At this rate, the amount of plastic pollution entering our ocean is currently doubling every six years. If these trends continue, the total weight of plastic pollution in our ocean could exceed the total weight of all fish in the ocean by 2050. …
“Surfrider chapters and clubs lead hundreds of cleanups every year, removing thousands of pounds of trash before it enters our ocean, and collecting data to inform our efforts to make the legislative changes needed to hold plastic producers and polluters accountable.
“Additionally, the production of plastic, a fossil-fuel product, contributes significantly to climate change and adverse human health impacts through both the raw materials and the manufacturing processes used to make it.
“Recycling is not the answer: Only about 5 percent of U.S. plastic waste gets recycled,” it goes on. “Surfrider instead advocates for reuse and the use of truly recyclable material in policy and as part of our Ocean Friendly Restaurant Program. Industry ‘solutions’ such as chemical or ‘advanced’ recycling are only ploys to justify the continued production of plastic and are championed by the fossil fuel industry and their lobbyists, not independent scientists.”
As to plastic items covered by the proposed restrictions, Christine Capelli, vice chair of the Eastern Long Island Foundation of the Surfrider Foundation, told the East Hampton Village Board: “Restaurants order them in bulk and are just handing them out, and now the customers are burdened with them.”
An East Hampton High School senior, Lola Garneau, told the board: “Small steps in the right direction can have effects beyond what all of us can imagine.”
Indeed, the new ordinance might be considered a small step by a relatively small municipality — but small steps can mount up.
In Suffolk County, plastic has been a governmental issue for some time. It started in 1988 with the county’s passage of the first law in the United States to ban polystyrene foam food packaging. And that spread from Suffolk to cities, counties and other jurisdictions across the nation.
Other Suffolk laws on plastic include restrictions on the distribution of single-use plastic bags, a measure that plastic beverage straws and stirrers only be provided on request, and laws regarding the release of balloons.
The drowning of our nation and world with plastic is a gargantuan problem.
Indeed, that’s why in March 2022 some 175 countries signed on to an agreement to forge a global treaty to cut plastic waste. That was at a United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya.
“Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the UN Environment Assembly shows multilateral cooperation at its best,” said Norway Minister for Climate and the Environment Ethan Barthe Eide, president of the gathering.
However, when it came time to act — in Ottawa two months ago — because of vested interests, the world fumbled. “Developed countries accused of bowing to lobbyists at plastic pollution talks,” was the April 30 headline in the British publication, The Guardian.
The article began: “Campaigners are blaming developed countries for capitulating at the last minute to pressure from the fossil fuel and industry lobbyists and slowing progress towards the first global treaty to cut plastic waste. Delegates concluded talks in Ottawa, Canada late on Monday with no agreement for global reductions in the $712 billion plastic production industry by 2040 to address twin issues of plastic waste and huge carbon emissions.”
That article in The Guardian was preceded by one five days earlier with a headline on how “pro-plastic lobbyists at UN pollution talks increase by a third.”
It said: “The 196 lobbyists registered for the talks represent a 37 percent increase from the 143 lobbyists registered at the last talks, in Nairobi. This in turn was a 36 percent increase on the previous year’s number. Increased plastic production is a major part of the fossil fuel industry’s plans for the future and any attempts to curb production, such as those being discussed at the UN talks, are an obvious threat to their profits.”
The Guardian said there is a plan “to hold more discussions.”
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