Plastic is in the news, as well as in our grocery carts and packaging. The PBS NewsHour reported on July 20th that the United States is the number one generator of plastic waste—about 200 pounds per person every year. The Center for International Environmental Law points out that over 99% of plastic is made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels. Far better than recycling is breaking our plastic habit.

Practice the 8 “Rs”?

• RETHINK— on your next shopping trip, keep in the front of your mind the packaging that contains your purchases. How can you decrease the amount of plastic in your grocery cart? Can you buy items that aren’t packaged? The more we get out of the waste stream, the less fossil fuel is used.
• REFUSE—be proactive: let waiters know you don’t want plastic straws and cutlery. If the shop has the option, ask for porcelain coffee mugs, or bring your own.
• REDUCE—bring your own bags into the produce aisle. Travel with your own take-out container, water bottle and coffee mug. Especially try to avoid plastic bags, plastic film, and black food containers. Keep focused on refusing and reducing your use of plastic.
• REUSE—look for milk and yogurt in reusable glass containers, for example, Milk House Yogurt or milk from Harris Dairy (which also offers home delivery of milk in reusable containers). We Fill Good in Kittery offers cleaning and personal care products in bulk to refill your containers.
• REFURBISH– Reupholster or refinish furniture.
• REPAIR—Patch and darn or find a skillful friend or a handy person before you throw it out.

Last of all: when necessary, RECYCLE.  Ridwell Express offers a program for hard to recycle plastic such as film, bottle caps, and RX bottles, which they in turn recycle.

HOW CAN WE APPROACH RECYCLING HERE IN YORK?

Here’s what we know:

• Our town contracts with Casella, which is able to recycle much of our plastic waste—with the exception of black plastic food containers from restaurants and plastic bags and film, which we should try to avoid.
• Since all plastic uses fossil fuel, it’s better to avoid plastic in the first place, even if it can be recycled. As a very rough guide, plastics marked 1, 2 and 5 can be recycled; plastics marked 3, 4, 6 and 7 cannot be recycled.
• Starting in 2026, Casella will introduce an automated waste and recycling system for York households. This means that Casella will be supplying homeowners with new garbage and recycling bins–so don’t buy new containers! And ask our town leaders to follow the example set by Kennebunk, which collected old bins which had no other use—and Casella found a way to recycle them.

Together, we make a difference. According to a study published in Science and cited in the NYT, communities where plastic bags are banned or require a fee have less plastic bags on the ocean’s edge.

Let’s keep up our progress!