Our country produces too much trash, and 80% of it, about 8 million tons a year ends up in the world's oceans, and then in the food chain. Marine life is eating plastic and dying by the millions, and those (fish) that survive are then consumed by us humans. Fish eat the trash (mostly plastic micro chips, very tiny pieces of plastic) and we eat the fish... with plastic in it! It is time that our government acts now, like Germany, and approves food packaging laws, to prevent further irreparable damage to our planet. Please contact your political leaders and ask them to pass similar legislation (laws) in the USA.
Please read about this recent German legislation, here below, and use it as the basis of you points to your leaders. I will contact them soon. To do so it is very easy. Go to Google, and do a search for your congressmen/senators in Washington. So, once in Google I would do a search, and type this: Contact senator Chuck Schumer. Then oncwe I'm in his site, I enter my name and contact information, and the letter that you see here at the bottom of this post. Then do the same for all the other leaders.
June 6, 2017 . By Greta Stieger
In a press release published on May 12, 2017, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) informed that the new German packaging law has been approved by the upper house of the German parliament (Bundesrat). The new law aims to improve the existing ordinance on packaging by focusing on recycling and prevention of packaging waste. The recycling targets for the different packaging materials will be increased, reaching 63% for plastic and 90% for metal, glass, and paper and board by 2022. Further, there shall be incentives for packaging producers to incorporate recyclability considerations in packaging design. In addition, reusable packaging will be promoted, aiming to reach a target of 70% reusable beverage packaging.
According to the German Minister for the Environment, Barbara Hendricks, the new packaging law is an important step in the further development of the circular economy. The law will enter into force on January 1, 2019.
Read more
BMUB (May 12, 2017). “Neues Verpackungsgesetz passiert den Bundesrat.” (in German)
Source: http://www.foodpackagingforum.org/news/new-german-packaging-law
MY LETTER TO MY POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVES IN WASHINGTON. I will email to Senators Kristen Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, and Congressman Paul Tonko.
On May 12, 2017, the German government approved a new food packaging law, which aims to improve their existing ordinance on packaging. This new legislation focuses on recycling and the prevention of packaging waste. The German recycling targets for the different packaging materials will be increased, reaching 63% for plastic and 90% for metal, glass, and paper and cardboard by 2022. In addition, the German government, will provide incentives for packaging producers to incorporate recyclability considerations in packaging design. Therefore, reusable packaging will be promoted, aiming to reach a target of 70% reusable beverage packaging.
According to the German Minister for the Environment, Barbara Hendricks, the new packaging law is an important step in the further development of the circular economy. The law will enter into force on January 1, 2019.
Dear senator/congressman, I urge you to follow Germany's example, and propose and then vote for similar legislation in our country. This would greatly help in preventing/reducing further irreparable damage to our planet. The USA produces too much trash. And 80% of it, about 8 million tons a year, ends up in the world's oceans, and then in the food chain. Marine life are now eating plastic and dying by the millions, and those (fish) that survive are then consumed by us humans. Fish eat the trash (mostly micro plastic, very tiny pieces of plastic) and we eat the fish... with plastic in it!
Humanity is overshooting Earth’s ecological limits, consuming resources and generating waste at an unsustainable rate. Packaging materials are valuable resources, yet at least 43 million tons of plastic, glass, metal, and paper packaging—much of it with market value—is land filled or burned in the U.S. each year. Packaging waste is also the biggest component of ocean litter that harms marine life and pollutes our oceans. The commodity market value of this wasted glass, plastic, paper, and metal packaging is estimated at $11.4 billion.
Companies have the resources to redesign products and packaging to stay within the bounds of our resource limitations but need to take stronger actions to recover and re-use waste. Product packaging is a good place to start reducing and recycling waste; it represents nearly half of the total U.S. municipal waste stream and is a substantial contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) or Make It, Take It! policies challenge companies to take responsibility for the impact of products and packaging over their full lifecycle. Europe and Canada have adopted EPR practices to shift responsibility for packaging waste from consumers and governments to producers. EPR is a fast-growing area of focus for sustainability-minded companies in the U.S. Leading brands like Coca-Cola Co., Nestlé Waters North America, and PepsiCo have taken responsibility for a majority of their post-consumer bottles and cans, setting an example for other consumer product companies
https://www.asyousow.org/our-work/waste/consumer-packaging/extended-producer-responsibility/
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