By Virginia Scharfenberg
Mashpee resident
Article 27 of the May 2nd Annual Town Meeting Warrant would mandate a repeal of Mashpee’s ban on the commercial sale of non-carbonated and non-flavored single-use plastic water bottles, currently scheduled to become effective as of September 30, 2022. There is a good public health and environmental rationale for voting NO on this repeal article.
Nine Cape Cod towns have passed and implemented the same commercial ban as part of a growing understanding that our actions – what we choose to change -become the change that our communities need to combat environmental degradation, climate change and the negative health impacts of single-use plastics.
Over the past several decades we all got used to carrying around single-use plastic bottles of water for a quick and easy drink. We didn’t think twice about this habit that was so convenient. We seldom thought about the toxic waste produced in the process of production, and probably didn’t realize that chemicals from plastic can and do leach into our beverages, thus impacting the health of our families.
Many people have felt responsible and good about themselves if we were conscientious enough to recycle our single-use bottles. However, estimates are that only about 20% of single-use plastic bottles are recycled into new products. The overall figure for plastics recycling is 9%, with the remaining 79% filling our landfills and 12% being incinerated.
This means that most “recyclable” plastics never get reused; and when they do they add to the continued and ever-increasing plastic overload.
One small thing we can do as individual citizens is to change this habit of convenience consumption to what many of our Mashpee school students and Mashpee households are doing already – using refillable containers.
No matter how you evaluate the life stages of plastic, there is a significant issue. We have an opportunity to bring awareness and impact to the plastics problem.
This Public Service Announcement has been prepared for the voting public:
If Mashpee citizens want to keep the Commercial Ban in place and reject its repeal, they can do so by voting NO on Town Warrant Article 27, by carrying a reusable bottle, and setting an example through action.
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