Watertown Resident Expands Efforts to Curtail Use of Plastics
Charlie Breitrose | August 3, 2022 | Watertown News
Several years ago, Watertown’s Eileen Ryan pushed for Watertown to pass a plastic shopping bag ban, and now she has expanded her efforts statewide.
In April, she founded Beyond Plastics Greater Boston, a local chapter of the national group Beyond Plastic.
“After we passed the ban (in 2016) we all patted ourselves on the back and thought we did a great job. We really noticed that there are fewer plastic bags in the river, in trees around Watertown,” Ryan said. “But in the fall of 2020 I saw a movie called The Story of Plastic and afterward I went to a discussion about it. I learned half of all plastic produced has been produced in the last 15 years and I was like, ‘Whoa, I have got to do something about that!'”
In July, the group went into Boston to advocate for passage of legislation to limit the use of plastic and encourage recycling.
Beyond Plastics Greater Boston has been pushing state legislators to expand the bottle bill in Massachusetts, in which people now pay a 5 cent deposit on carbonated beverage bottles.
“What the expanded bottle bill will do is increase the return deposit to a dime and it will cover all beverage containers, except milk and formula,” Ryan said.
Similar bills have led to higher rates of recycling in other states and countries, Ryan said, and it will also keep more heavy, glass bottles out recycling bins and prevent cross-contamination from containers for hazardous substances, such as bleach.
