Waste Reduction and Consumption
The carbon emissions and other environmental impacts from the products we consume are significant, yet often overlooked. There are many actions we can take to address the contribution that our purchases make toward our climate change problem.
Plastic, a pervasive product material made of fossil fuels contributes tremendously to carbon emissions, and other impacts. Our growing production, use and disposal of plastic products are causing widespread and serious impacts to ecological and human health by polluting our air and waters. We see plastic left behind and washing up on our beaches; we read about it’s accumulation in our oceans, harming and killing marine life at all levels of the ocean food web. Microplastic particles are everywhere on land and in our atmosphere from plastic products that break down and become lifted into the air.
Check out KQED’s mini-documentary covering the plastic pollution problem in California. It does a great job showing how plastic production contribute to climate change, how widespread plastic pollution is, and what is being done to tackle the problem.
It’s not an easy problem to solve, but as our understanding of the scale of the problem increases, we are called to take action as individuals and communities.
It's a misconception that recycling and disposal will keep plastic out of our ecosystems. We have learned that the percentage of plastic waste that actually gets recycled is less than 10 %. The plastic industry has led us to believe that by adding the triangular recycling sign to all plastic products, it can be easily recycled. This is false.
Plastic production and recycling is not a closed loop like glass, metal, paper. Plastic can only be recycled once (or at most twice). Then it winds up in landfill and the environment. We currently do not have the technology or capacity to recycle the huge volume of plastics we consume, and yet fossil fuel companies are planning on ramping up plastic production by 3-4 times by 2050.
At this time, our waste hauler in West Marin (Recology Sonoma Marin) can only collect rigid plastic they can send to a reliable market. There is a good market for #1, #2, and #5 plastics.
And bioplastic cannot be composted in our system, nor can it be recycled.
It is important to recycle plastic as much as possible, but it is much better to Reduce and Reuse. Let’s keep working together to figure out ways to reduce our consumer demand and use of plastic.
Did you know that waste is not sorted the same way in every locality in the Bay Area? West Marin Climate Action, with the support of Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM) and Recology Sonoma Marin, created and installed this sorting station to help Point Reyes Farmer’s Market customers choose the right bin to discard their to-go items, specific to our West Marin region. Each example item hanging from color-coded wire helps market-goers know which bin to discard their waste into.
An important Civic Action you can take now is to advocate to our elected leaders the critical importance of tackling our plastic pollution problem. We now have an opportunity to let our voices be heard on the federal level. Check out the #PlasticFreePresident campaign. West Marin Climate Action has signed on and you can, too!
And here are more resources to learn and get involved with advocacy:
Reusable Foodware Ordinance - Marin County
Plastic Bag Ban - Various states and cities
California AB1826-Organic Food Waste Policy - California
Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act - will be reintroduced in Congress in 2021. Contact your federal representatives to support and co-sponsor this bill.
Read about CA Senate and Assembly bills on solid waste and packaging at Surfrider Foundation. Here are the bills: SP54 and AB1080.
Learn more about how to advocate for plastic reduction at Plastic Pollution Coalition .
Community action and project ideas which address the issue of consumption and waste were raised by the participants of our 2019 event, “Decarbonizing California by 2025”, including:
-Establish Repair Cafes (appliances).
-Expand Lending Libraries (events, tools).
-Education on manufacturing (fast fashion synthetics).
-Buy less. Reuse more. Shop at thrift stores.
-Education on the environmental cost of disposable products (pollution, climate, human health, habitat).
-Reduce plastic consumption.
-Implement zero waste.
-Buying less from Amazon (emissions from truck deliveries).
-Choose stay-cations more often.
Which solution(s) will you take action on?
And, there are so many more Ways We Can Reduce our use and disposal of plastics. One of our members, Marnie Jackson, has been actively creating and finding ways to reduce our consumption of goods with plastic packaging. She produced a few short videos on how to shop locally without plastic packaging, and how to make your own toothpaste and deodorant to avoid purchasing plastic. See Marnie’s Plastic Free How-to Videos:
Join our Plastic Reduction Challenge!
This practice is a great way to take stock of how much plastic moves through our lives, remembering that currently, only about 10% of it will actually be recycled into a new product, and can only be recycled once. Ninety percent of our plastic waste ends up in landfills, gets burned or goes into our watersheds and ocean. We hope this practice helps us see the ways each of us can reduce our demand for plastic products and wrapping.
Here’s what to do:
1. For one week (start and end dates are your choice), collect all the plastic that your household accumulates.
2. Download and print out our Plastic Collection Data Sheet.
3. Dedicate a separate receptacle to collect your plastic waste during the week. Keep track of other plastic (such as pens, toys) that you may accumulate during the week.
4. At the end of the week, spread out your collected plastic on a tarp/sheet and count the items in each category and record on the sheet.
5. Take a photo of your collection and Data Sheet (if you filled in a printed version by hand) and email us your photos of the plastic and data sheet with the email heading: “Plastic Reduction Challenge”.
Here are a few examples of plastic trash and recycling that households collected in one week - the average count was about 19 items per household. The most common items include plastic packet bags for food, plastic film/wrap, and caps/lids.
We welcome more participants in this challenge and would love to hear about your experience!
“I am frustrated that organic foods are often the ones wrapped more in plastic. Kind of a dilemma -Plastic vs Organic... Glad our romaine in the garden is almost ready to harvest. This was a good learning experience!”
“I learned I have other options for some plastic packaging and that most plastic has no sustainable re-cycle options. I also observed that some weeks I have a higher volume of plastic waste than others just by chance. One first step I am taking as a result of this challenge is to make my own yogurt instead of buying it in plastic containers.”
To learn more about reducing our dependence on plastic, visit our our Events page to watch the first event in our webinar series, “On the Way to Plastic Free!”.
Food Waste
-Re-direct excess food from food banks that otherwise would be wasted, to another West Marin food bank with greater current need.
This list below are additional project ideas that were raised by the participants of “Decarbonizing California by 2025”, our community event held on November 10, 2019. We welcome hearing about more ideas, too!
-Support more composting at home, businesses (especially restaurants and farms) and schools.
-Advocate with civic leaders for food waste solutions (e.g., ensure target for Senate Bill 1383 are being met).
-Find creative ways to re-direct unused food from farms, restaurants and schools to those that are in need (e.g. extrafood.org).
-Plan household food consumption to minimize waste.
Contact Us if you would like to get involved with or lead a project addressing Food Waste in our community.
Contact Us if you would like to get involved with addressing consumption and plastic proliferation in our community.