The Vineyard Conservation Society is calling for the voluntary elimination of polystyrene Islandwide. VCS is asking all six Island towns to vote on a nonbinding referendum this spring.
The Vineyard Conservation Society is calling for the voluntary elimination of polystyrene Islandwide.
“It’s one of the worst plastics there is for the environment and human health,” said Signe Benjamin, programs and membership coordinator for VCS.
To that end, VCS is asking selectmen in all six Island towns to place a nonbinding referendum on their town meeting warrants this spring.
Polystyrene, widely used in packing materials, flotation devices, coolers and food containers, is probably the most easily recognized form of polystyrene, but VCS education and youth coordinator Samantha Look said the material has other, widespread uses.
“It also comes in a rigid plastic form,” Ms. Look said. “We probably bump into it most commonly as disposable cutlery.”
She has been making the rounds in Island towns, asking for the nonbinding warrant article.
The material is considered a likely carcinogen, Ms. Look said, and its use in food containers can add to the risk. But VCS is chiefly concerned with the solid waste problems posed by polystyrene use. While polystyrene may be recyclable in theory, Ms. Look said that doesn’t happen in real life.
“The foam is full of air,” she said. “It doesn’t make economic sense to recycle it, so it’s not recycled.”
Proposed language the warrant article specifies polystyrene products local businesses are encouraged to avoid, including plates, cups, bowls, trays, cartons, containers, straws, stirrers, and new packing fill such as packing peanuts.
Ms. Look emphasized that the group is not seeking an outright ban on polystyrene products, as it did with single-use plastic bags in its successful 2016 campaign.
“That was a regulation. This is a resolution,” she said.
This year’s referendum more closely resembles the youth-led 2016 campaign to wean Island businesses away from plastic drinking straws, she said.
“Our community has done a pretty awesome job thanks to the students’ campaign to move away from straws,” Ms. Look said. “Businesses have made an incredible effort to switch to paper or stop using straws.”
Many Island businesses have also made the switch away from polystyrene, she said. For others interested in changing over, VCS has a list of other materials.
“There are great alternatives, and lots of them,” Ms. Look said. “All sorts of paper-based products and all sorts of other types of plastics.”
She said disposable packaging continues to pose a challenge that is drawing nearer.
“Solid waste is going to become a bigger and bigger issue, and I think we’re going to have to be increasingly careful about the waste that we create,” she said.
“I think what our message has been, and continues to be, is looking for more systemic change that allows for greater use of reusable materials.”
Comments
While you're at it how about
Nelson Sigelman VINEYARD HAVENWhile you're at it how about asking the voters of Oak Bluffs and Edgartown to institute a ban on the sale of the ubiquitous nip bottles. They are a blight on the landscape.
Good for them. But they've
Hugh Weisman Chilmark and NYGood for them. But they've overlooked another large use of Polystyrene and that's in construction. Green Building, as it is known, is focused on a combination of using materials with low environmental impact as well as reducing energy use by constructing very tight, well insulated, structures. One way to help achieve air tightness and effective insulation is the increasing use of foam plastics to clad the outside of a structure. Extruded Polystyrene (XPS), Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), and Polyisocyanurate (Polyiso) are commonly used. None of them are perfect materials regarding environmental impact, but the GWP (Global Warming Potential) of XPS is 1430 times that of carbon, while EPS and Polyiso have a GWP of about 7 times that of carbon, significantly less than XPS. XPS boards are commonly referred to as blue board, or pink board insulation. They are less fragile than EPS foam and have greater insulation values, but their GWP makes them something that should never be used, and perhaps banned.
I support this effort. Let’s
Part Time Cynic MVI support this effort. Let’s just make that clear from the start. However, a lot people I know who don’t would ask “what are those space age jackets made of?” Gonna guess North Face and Patagonia figured this out long ago with earth friendly non sweatshop materials. Next question would be “what did those jackets cost?” And perhaps “did you buy them on Amazon?” You don’t have to convince me. You gotta convince them.
Its the micro plastics that
Jonathan Jupiter FLIts the micro plastics that are ending up in our food, water and wildlife.
Building materials is an
ECS Ft Lauderdale / EdgartownBuilding materials is an issues that needs to be addressed [besides the issues Hugh mentions, grinding up plastic bottles, using the remains for insulation and calling it recycling plastic is pathetic and just adds to the micro particles] but single use plastics can be banned relatively simply and essentially overnight - China has already done it as of about 2022. This is the sort of thing that will make America great but the problem is special interest groups, greedy politicians and a general lack of leadership in this country
Thank you VCS for bringing
Vasha Brunelle VHThank you VCS for bringing this issue to the public. It's a battle against wealthy influential special interest groups.
Thank you, VCS, for doing
Carol formerly ChilmarkThank you, VCS, for doing this.
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