Plastic pollution is flooding us. Plastics are a thread that connects many of the interconnected problems in our world: Climate Change, Wealth Disparities, Racialized injustices, Toxins, and Pollution.

With business as usual we will see a three fold increase in the amount of ocean plastics by 2040. Plastics production will triple by 2050 The oil industry is looking to plastics for profits as we reach peak oil for transportation and heating. 

The polluting production and disposal of plastics is nearly entirely located in low income Black communities and Asian communities where people bear the worst effects on health, environment, and poor work. Plastics are made with and from toxic materials that have been shown to increase cancers, fertility issues and kidney disease, We eat a credit card worth of plastics each week. 

We the undersigned call for holding big corporate polluters responsible for their mess of packaging, plastics, and waste. We support Vermont’s upcoming legislation this session: the expanded Bottle Bill (H.175), Extended Producer Responsibility (H.142), and the Right to Repair (H.58). Make new laws to tackle the interconnected issues of health, climate, economy, racism, poverty, and planet.
 
Now is the time to force producers to a cleaner and healthier path. We call on lawmakers to find further ways to bring about a regenerative, circular economy.