Now Is the Time to Clean Up the Plastic

STEWARDS OF OUR EARTH

All of God’s Creation

Social Justice Committee, Holy Cross Parish, Mt. Airy, July 27, 2025

“Every year, plastics make up the most common items collected by Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup® (ICC) volunteers worldwide: cigarette butts, bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, grocery bags and more. In 2023 alone, nine of the top 10 items collected globally were made of plastic—ICC volunteers prevented 10.1 million pieces of plastic pollution from entering our ocean and waterways.

And while cleanups are a major piece to solving the plastics puzzle, another piece is to curb this crisis at the source by phasing out single-use plastics…. [It is estimated] that eliminating just five of these wasteful plastic items—cigarette butts, bags, foam foodware, utensils and straws—can cut roughly 1.4 million tons of plastics annually in the United States alone, equivalent to the weight of four Empire State Buildings.” Add your name to take action against single-use plastics now. (Britta Baechler, Ph.D., Director, Ocean Plastics Research, Ocean Conservancy, 7/7/25)

“In a world where hermit crabs use plastic trash for shells and more plastic clogs our waterways every single day, it's easy to feel helpless about our plastic pollution problem.” However, there is some good news. “A new study shows that plastic bag bans across the country are shifting the tide on single-use plastic pollution.… In areas with bag bans, plastic bag pollution was reduced by 25 - 47%....

We have a long way to go if we're going to protect our ocean wildlife and reduce the tremendous amount of plastic entering our environment. But this study confirms what we've known all along: that when we put in the work and pass bold, commonsense legislation that prioritizes people, planet and wildlife, the results will speak for themselves.” (Lisa Frank, Executive Director, Environment America, Inc., 7/7/25)

The organization Beyond Plastics “has sourced actions ranging from small, do-able steps to reduce single-use plastic in your life, to larger ways to take part in systemic solutions that match the scale of the problem.” Here are some actions to consider:

Educate your local café or restaurant by sharing the Beyond Plastics Free Guide.

Conduct a plastic audit in your home or at your workplace. Audits are a good way to see all at once just how much plastic packaging is in your garbage. Around 40% of plastic produced is used to make packaging.

Switch to a stainless steel or glass reusable water bottle. Recent studies show that bottled water contains 10 to 100 times more microplastics than previously estimated. 

(Judith Enck, President, Beyond Plastics, 7/1/25)

You can also urge Secretary of State Marco Rubio to finalize the strongest possible global plastics treaty at the final session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee scheduled to take place from August 4th to August 14th, 2025, in Switzerland. (Waterkeeper Alliance, 7/21/25)

Comments on this column may be directed to the Social Justice Committee at socialjustice@holycrossphl.org. Click here for column archive.