LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT.

• Author: Campbell, Bradley
• Position: CONSERVATION MATTERS

Too often when it comes to solving our biggest environmental challenges, the burden of responsibility falls on the shoulders of individuals.

Plastic manufacturers are especially fond of this "blame the consumer" game. With their products wreaking havoc on our oceans and climate, and the recycling crisis causing huge deficits in city and town budgets, these corporate polluters are content to sit back and point fingers--at you, me, and every other consumer who ever bought a bottled water or drank their soda through a straw.

Individual change does play a role, but it cannot solve our plastic crisis alone. Yes, we can all recycle more, switch to reusable bottles and containers, and start composting. And if we can, we should. But the reality is, many plastics that end up in the recycling stream are never actually recycled.

Ultimately, creating a zero-waste future requires action by lawmakers, manufacturers, and retailers, among others. We must change the way products are made and packaged, rethink what gets thrown away and what gets reused, and reform our recycling system.

The best way to help create this future is as a constituent, putting pressure on state legislators to pass bag bans and zero-waste laws ... as a consumer, pushing manufacturers to change their polluting products ... and as a customer, asking local stores to stock items with less wasteful packaging.

What's not helpful? Plastic manufacturers (or environmental groups) making us feel guilty about our personal choices. When you're entangled in a dysfunctional system--like the one that governs how we manage our trash and its disposal--it can be hard to see the paths to change from the inside.

Only when you can view that system from the outside can you find the cracks in it that will help tear it down. That's why reforming any system begins with educating ourselves and the people around us--and demanding change from our elected officials.

So don't let manufacturers get away with the false narrative that it's up to you and me to recycle our way out of this plastic crisis. It's time to call them out as the...