March 26: Legislation on Single-use Plastics

This canvas bag (center) has been used hundreds of times (plastic bags sourced from a local "recycling" bin).

The 134th Sustainability Salon will conclude our short series inspired by new legislation that will enable major environmental improvements, on a human scale.  On Sunday, March 26th (4 p.m. to 7 or so, via Zoom), we'll look at Single-use Plastics.

Plastics are a scourge on our air, land, and water.  Plastic production generally requires the extraction of fossil carbon from deep underground, and is one of the most greenhouse-gas intensive industries.  Other types of pollution make plastic production areas (like Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" and now also Beaver County, PA) unhealthy places to live.  Contrary to industry propaganda, very little plastic is actually recycled;  some is downcycled, but most goes to landfill, litter, or incineration.  And while plastic doesn't break down very fast chemically, so plastic pollution persists (80% of the junk in the world's oceans is plastic), it does break up into smaller and smaller bits, called microplastics,  Humans, on average, inadvertently ingest an amount of plastic equivalent to a credit card every week -- and wildlife that mistakes floating plastic for food just keeps eating it until they're full, and then die of starvation.  And wildlife often gets tangled or trapped in plastic trash.  How can we stem the tide?  Legislation needs to play a part.

Here in Pittsburgh, we will soon join the list of municipalities banning retailers from giving out single-use plastic bags at checkout or delivery.   We'll hear from Pittsburgh City Council member Erika Strassburger, who proposed this legislation and brought it to a unanimous Council vote last April.   She'll share the details of the new law, and what it'll take to make this big change.  

Of course, it would be great to take similar action at the county level.  Allegheny County Council member Anita Prizio, who chairs the Committee on Sustainability and Green Initiatives, will be with us to talk about what's percolating there, the constraints they face, and possible paths forward.  

What's happening elsewhere?  Faran Savitz, PennEnvironment's Zero Waste Advocate, will join us to share his research on what's happening where (and how!), and the resources that PennEnvironment can provide to local governments to help advance such bans, from up-to-date background information to model ordinances.

(Update:  unfortunately, Helen Gerhardt's presentation must be postponed -- but fortunately, there are food implications to her topic.  She will discuss (probably in April) how our current Home Rule Charter grants outsized powers to the Allegheny County Executive within the structures of local, regional, and even Commonwealth government - and how we might support checks and balances on those powers that so greatly impact environmental justice, health, development, housing, transit, food sovereignty, justice systems, incarceration, and many other critical human needs in our communities.)

Looking forward to Sunday! In the meantime, some other items of note (followed by salon logistics):

•  March 23:  Energy efficiency for community buildings -- last month we talked about home energy efficiency;  this webinar will look at how nonprofits and faith groups are improving their buildings.   More information and registration here. 

•  March 28:  Online legislative briefing with June Sekera on carbon removal.  Register here.  

•  March 29:  Learn more about environmental and health issues facing Pennsylvanians with PSR PA at a series of Town Hall events (in person and virtual) -- starting with Southeastern Pennsylvania but roving around the state, including Beaver (Apr 26) and Washington (date TBA) counties.  

•  March 30-31:  Nonviolent direct action workshop with George Lakey and Veronica Coptis (at Slippery Rock University).  Connect with other organizations and help generate campaigns!  More information and registration here. 

•  April 1:  Communitopia's Youth Climate Summit.  More information and registration here. 

•  April 12:  Last month we heard from PA State Rep Sara Innamorato about the bipartisan Whole Home Repair Act passed last year.  Wouldn't it be great to have her energy and compassion in the Allegheny County Executive's office?  Join other engaged citizens to hear from Sara at a fundraiser to help get her there!

•  April 15, 16, 22, 23:  Combine a forest stewardship activity with the creation of grapevine spheres, in honor of Earth Day.  More info and registration here.

•  April 19-22:  Grow Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Conservation District will host a Free Soil Lead Screening for county residents.  More info and registration here..

•  May 11:  Solarpunk Future:  part job fair, part interactive art show.   More information and registration here.

•  Clean Air Council has set up a directed donation fund to help residents affected by the train derailment just over the Ohio border in East Palestine.  You can contribute here to help fund needed resources for residents of easternmost Ohio and westernmost Pennsylvania.  

•  Closer to home, you can support striking Post-Gazette workers here (and consider signing up for the alternative online publication, the Pittsburgh Union Progress -- and maybe even cancel your P-G subscription until they start treating workers fairly!).

•  And speaking of solidarity, the Cop City controversy is still raging in Atlanta.  More information and a support fund are here.  There's also talk of a similar facility in the works for Pittsburgh... 

•  PRC continues to hold online workshops about composting, rainwater harvesting, and waste reduction.  

•  The Rachel Carson EcoVillage is still looking for a few more members, so they can start construction!  Curious?  Check out this introductory video -- or even better, sign up for an introduction session or sign up as an “inquirer” to have more information sent to you.

•  Did you see the film The Story of Plastic, or the PBS doc Plastic Wars?  (and/or join us for Plastic Paradise at a winter film salon six years ago?)  ...What if you could bring up imagery of the toxic impacts of plastic production, and commentary by the people and communities living with them, over the world?  You can do all that with the interactive Toxic Tours tool.  Check it out!  

•  Mask update:  Breathe99 masks (featured at November's salon on Pandemics and Air (video), and one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2020) are now being distributed by Our Children Our Earth, a local purveyor of alternatives to disposables (as well as classy wooden toys).  Contact Dianne via OCOE's Facebook page, or call (412) 772-1638 to coordinate a curbside pickup (or you can still order online).

Talks and discussion will run from 4 p.m. to 7 or so on Zoom (sadly, no potluck supper these days).  You're welcome to join the call for informal conversation after 3 p.m., and we aim to start the main program right around 4.  Talks finish by around 7, but informal discussion often continues after that -- join us for whatever time works for you!  If you're new to Zoom, you may find my Zoom Reference Guide helpful.  If you RSVP via Eventbrite, you'll receive the Zoom registration link right away.  If you're not already on my Eventbrite list, please email me (maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to be added -- and let me know how you heard about salons!

For the uninitiated, a Sustainability Salon is an educational forum;  it's a mini-conference;  it's a venue for discussion and debate about important environmental issues (and often health, and justice, and politics);  it's a house party (if there weren't a pandemic) with an environmental theme.  Each month we have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, and (when in person) delectable potluck food and drink and music-making through the evening.   Originally a potluck mini-conference, the event has been mostly on Zoom since March 2020, except for some outdoor summer salons.  

Past topics have included home energy efficiency (and legislation to help fund improvements), the UN's COP process for climate negotiations, alternatives to single-use packaging, our region's air (part I and part II), activist art and America's Energy Gamble, advocacy opportunities, social justice games, fixing Pennsylvania state government, climate action, forest restoration, the history of American consumerism, regional air quality, preserving Pittsburgh's forests, climate modeling, approaches to pipelines, pipeline hazards, the legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the judiciary and fair elections, consumption, pandemics and air,  election law and activism, air quality and environmental justice, social investment,  local economies, the economics of energy, mutual aid networks, ocean health, the rise of the radical right, the back end of consumption, approaches to activism on fracking & climate, air quality, technology, and citizen science, single-use plastics, election activism, election law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plants, advanced nuclear technologies, passenger and freight trains, consumption, plastics, and pollution, air quality, solar power, youth activism, greening business, greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme;  with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).