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What policies and/or projects can be implemented to help the current…
What policies and/or projects can be implemented to help the current general litter problem?
Saving America From Plastic Bags
"San Francisco, which in 2007 became the first city in America to place a ban on plastic grocery and retail store bags. San Jose, where a similar law led to an 89% reduction of plastic bag litter in the city's storm drains..."
This is a serious reduction and it makes me happy to see! However, I find it very unfortunate that 2 cities and 1 state (California) passed a law outright banning or placing a fee on plastic bags.
Managing marine plastic pollution: policy initiatives to address wayward waste.
"Some Europeans nations have developed a model to better manage their plastic waste and reduce marine pollution. It is called extended producer responsibility (EPR). The idea behind EPR is to shift financial responsibility for end-of-life disposal to product manufacturers, thereby providing an incentive for improved product design, reuse, and recycling."
(This policy originated in Sweden in 1990 by the way) EPR kind of sounds like shifting blame for the people who are causing the most plastic litter. Technically, it is the plastic manufacturing companies' fault for why there's so much plastic in the ocean (and on land too, because marine litter isn't the only kind of pollution), but it's interesting to me how all this time I believed that average citizens (or consumers in this case) caused so much marine pollution because we're lazy and don't want to dispose of waste properly, but really we should turn our attention to the companies that produce and sell such hazardous products
Boston makes a game of litter-free sidewalks
"Boston is a beautiful city, but to keep it that way we must all do our part to keep our streets clean', Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement. 'This smart and innovative effort incorporates a public-polling process to engage our residents and visitors in protecting out environment."
I think it's really cool that Boston managed to make throwing out trash fun. Springfield mostly has plastic or paper litter lying around, but maybe we could make a game out of recycling? Personally, taking a chore or assignment and making it easier or more fun in any way gets the job done faster, so maybe doing a similar action for the rest of the city in relation to cleaning up litter could significantly reduce urban pollution?
The mayor of Boston also raised the legal age to buy cigarettes to 21 and banned smoking in city parks (literally the WORST place to find trash) as a way of cutting off cigarette litter from the source (lots of people under 21 buying cigarettes and not caring about properly disposing of them)
Classify plastic waste as hazardous
Apparently the U.S. (and China) classifies plastic as solid waste such as food scraps, but if plastic would be classified as hazardous waste, then plastic manufacturing companies will use safer alternatives that don't threaten the environment in order to not get in trouble for mass producing dangerous materials
This fact confuses me because don't food scraps decompose or get eaten? What happens to grass clippings once a lawn is mowed? Plastic takes 400+ years to forever to decompose, so plastic still tops all waste as the most hazardous (and to more people)
No-Smoking Policies and Their Outcomes on U.S. Beaches
"Cigarette butts are the number one type of litter collected from beaches. Cigarette butts degrade the beach environment and have important negative environmental consequences on marine life (ingestion by fish, birds, and marine mammals can cause toxicity problems)
I've actually seen this before. When I went on vacation to South Carolina with my family, despite there being a no smoking sign on the entrance to the beach I still saw cigarettes buried in the sand, and it was the only trash I saw. Clearly kicking sand over a cigarette doesn't help, probably because the tides can wash the cigarette butt back to the surface, but just don't smoke on the beach! The birds don't want to eat tobacco
(Comparisons between No Smoking article and Boston article)
The element that links these two articles together is their shared topic of how to handle cigarette butts. One way you can reduce cigarette butt litter (or litter in general) is to just pan it from the premises. If you don't want cigarette butts to make walking on the beach less beautiful, then ban smoking. If you want people to stop making the city less clean, then set up a (fun) and easy to access way for them to throw their cigarette butts. These articles find simple solutions to eliminate litter all together
(Comparisons between No smoking article and Classifying Plastic waste article) These articles don't have much in common, however I will point out that they each briefly mention that trash (cigarette butts and plastic) both negatively effect people and wildlife. Animals that roam the beach looking for food such as seagulls and crabs can eat cigarette butts mistaking it for food and become sick. Animals that accidentally eat microplastic (plastic that has become degraded by the strong current of the ocean) can suffer health risks that range from starvation (because their stomachs fill up with plastic that can't be digested and thus have no room for food), suffocation (microplastic chunks that are too big to be swallowed) or simply die of being poisoned from the pollutants still present in the plastic
(Comparisons between Saving America article and Classifying plastic waste article) Most of my sources talk about plastic waste, probably because it's the most dangerous pollutant in many environments. Aside from that, these articles both propose ways to reduce or eliminate plastic use in order to preserve nature (one article talks about keeping the environment clean, while the other article talks about keeping marine life safe)
(Comparisons between Saving America article and Managing marine plastic article) both of these articles discuss different methods of reducing plastic waste, specifically through legal action. I feel partially responsible for why there's so much plastic pollution (despite that being illogical and that I always make sure I throw away all of my trash and recycle when given the opportunity), so I appreciate these articles easing this unnecessary burden by explaining how taking legal action (holding plastic manufacturing companies, like designers responsible and passing a bill that will place a fee on plastic bags, which will set off a chain reaction of less people being willing to pay for plastic bags and will use a more environmentally friendly alternative like reusable bags, which will reduce plastic production) can reduce plastic pollution better than us as consumers
(Comparison between Boston Article and Managing marine plastic) These articles don't have anything in common except for a theme of higher ups needing to take action in reducing litter (for Boston, the mayor takes multiple actions to eliminate cigarette butt litter, but in the managing marine plastic article, the EPR principle has only taken effect in Sweden and European countries, not here in the U.S., where plastic production is a multitrillion dollar business