Uniting States Against Plastic

USPIRG and State PIRGs have a 50-year legacy of challenging wasteful consumption that harms our health and our planet, starting with successful campaigns to pass bottle bills to encourage recycling of beverage containers in the 70s and 80s. The network of state environment groups that are part of Environment America have built upon and added to that legacy with their own campaigns to value the protection of wildlife over waste, and ban single-use plastic bags and other products. 

Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. The United States generates over 12 percent of the planet's waste even though we make up just 4 percent of the population. That averages out to around 5 pounds of material per American every single day.

The production of that material consumes precious natural resources, and contributes to climate change. Only a third of our waste is recycled or composted while the vast majority is sent to landfills, incinerators, or the natural environment. 

We need to take decisive steps to address our growing waste crisis, and move to a circular, zero-waste economy.

One immediate, obvious step we should take is eliminating the unnecessary use of single-use plastics that have become so pervasive in our economy. So the state organizations that participated in the event, along with many other allies, have been campaigning for policies to phase out single use plastics in their communities and make plastic producers responsible for their waste. 

This summer, we’re canvassing door-to-door in 10 states across the country to raise awareness and mobilize support about the need to reduce plastic waste, and we are running campaigns in many other states, too.