I recently explored my school’s campus woods for the first time in a year, and I saw some disturbing sights. There was plastic waste everywhere. Even after a year without students on campus, the trees, the soil, the water — it was all contaminated with plastic trash.
PennEnvironment just published a new survey of waterways, Microplastics in Pennsylvania. The organization tested more than 50 rivers, lakes and streams, and microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic smaller than a grain of rice — were found in every waterway tested, including the Allegheny River. This isn’t someone else’s problem; it’s in your local water, food and air.
We live in a throw-away society; so much of our plastic “stuff” is used once and then tossed aside, left to break down for hundreds of years and never truly going away. We need to stop plastic pollution at the source by passing bans on single-use plastics, as well as producer responsibility laws so those who make the pollution have to shoulder the costs of solving the problem.
We need our state legislators to pass the Zero Waste for PA package of legislation. Call your state legislators today and ask them to sign on.
Juliet Birch
Media, Pa.
The writer is an intern with PennEnvironment.