001Okay. All right. Thank you. We can get started just so that we can stay on topic and keep going with the event >> [clears throat] >> at home on the same topic. But, yeah. Great. [clears throat] So, we're going to open the floor to to questions. I think first we'll just start with a really brief introduction of the panelists. You're looking at me? Yeah. Uh my name is Tom Trainer. That's the one correct thing up front here. But, I just wanted to mention I don't live in Holliston. I live in Sherborn. And I'm not representing the 350 committee. That's my wife Donna in the back with the t-shirt who nominated me, I think. Just one thing about me, I'm I'm actually a chemist. Uh embarrassed to say after uh learning more about the uh indus-
002industry I've been in 50 years. But, I'm I have a PhD in analytical chemistry, so I can analyze the lot of the chemicals like they they they talked about. And uh I think one reason maybe why why Donna nominated me, last couple of years I've learned a lot about microplastics. And uh tried tried to uh stop a couple different artificial turf fields in the area. Um Kathy Reiss. I live in Needham and I'm um the team lead for our the plastic reduction team in GreenNeedham. I've over the past 3 years have sort of led our team to put in place many plastic single-use plastic bans within the town. So, we banned plastic bags, Styrofoam, black plastic, plastic coffee stirrers, splash guards. And then we also put a skip the stuff in campaign into effect, which
003I have seen you guys are considering. It's really beneficial for both the environment and for the businesses as a cost-saving measure. So, I think that's that's a great step forward. So, I'm also a part of Beyond Plastics and I'm a volunteer speaker for for Beyond Plastics. I'm >> [clears throat] >> Bridget Lee. I'm an emergency physician. I've gotten more involved in sustainability in medicine and got connected with Beyond Plastics. So, I'm on the speakers bureau of that and I'm on the speakers bureau of a now pretty large organization called Physicians Network Physicians and Scientists Network Addressing Plastics and Health and through that I give a lot of lectures on reduction of plastics in health care as we're one of the biggest users of single-use plastic and um next time you get an IV, ask for
004one without phthalates in it because a lot of IV bags have phthalates in them. Um so, and I followed Kathy's lead and I'm trying to build something in my community to uh replicate the same uh initiatives that she's doing there. All right. Kevin Cam, uh Ashland's resident nerd on energy and all things plastic and other things. Um we table a lot. We go around trying to preach to beyond the choir. So, hopefully some of you are not just our choir. I'm a attorney by background, but as relevant to here, more just a guy who takes in information and tries to turn it into useful actions um for myself and everybody else. Before we take questions, can I just put one spin on this? When she They said a couple times it's all the chemicals, but
005I want to say it's also the microplastics that's causing harm. Plastics were just found in the body in 2018, so we still don't know the um science behind that as much and the um causality hasn't been found, but we're finding that now, so I don't want everybody to think that it's just uh the chemicals. It's been found in plaques, likely increasing risks of heart attack, strokes, uh death. It's been found in tumors, uh, colon cancers, prostate cancers, bladder, um, lung cancers. It's been found in the brain in patients with Alzheimer's have 10% more than other patients or other brain samples. So, and we don't know if that's the chemicals or the microplastics. So, don't think it's just the chemicals. Plus, they didn't go into as much, but it's a massive part of climate change. The
006plastics industry is they put in more and more into their development of plastics because we're switching to renewables and, uh, so, uh, anything we Right now it's about 4% or 5% of the nation the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from plastic production. So, us getting our cars on batteries and solar panels is fantastic, but they're just transplanting it with that. So, I wanted to put those two things that they didn't touch on in the movie. I'll open the floor to questions. Anyone wants to go first? Where does silicone fit in this? Sorry, where does silicone fit in? Is it plastic or is it something else? Uh, silicone is it's a, uh, polymer, it's a lasting polymer. Uh, I'm I'm not a toxicologist, so I don't know toxicity of silicone. >> I think what I've learned
007is that it is Silicone is a natural, uh, um, molecule, but they add a lot of the same chemicals to it. It's probably a lesser of two evils if, uh, in your kitchen if you needed something and those were the two you were choosing, but, um, I think, you know, the wood, glass, uh, metal is better, but Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's a I proceed with caution kind of thing that, you know, don't assume that it's natural, um, because there are I think additives. I'm thinking travel and, you know, okay, so I don't maybe I don't have a plastic baggie. If I've got a silicone one that's reusable, washable, you know, carrying stuff in in metal and glass and some of those, you know, it's kind of hard cuz it's heavy or you know, Could
008you substitute with a cloth bag or If something's yes, salad's a little difficult. But is neither the question though more of a storage issue rather than a cooking issue, right? Yes. I mean, they make these out of different I mean, it's less than it's less likely to leach or otherwise degrade in the absence of Again, it's probably better than most plastics, but I don't think we have the evidence at least, you know, I don't know that from being a doctor just from being on these listservs and being absorbed in this that it's not Is this film available online somewhere? Yes, it's available if you have a Netflix subscription. It's on It's on Netflix, yep. Okay, what what name or what? Just it's I think the movie is Plastic Detox. Oh, okay. Yeah. And so, you
009can yeah, find it on on Netflix. So, share share it with friends and family. And neighbors. And it's I noticed it's being shown by a lot of groups right now in Eastern Massachusetts. So, if you Google, you'll see you know, sites over the next couple of weeks in other towns. But this What's on your mind? >> [laughter] >> Plastics. I've done it once, so Um compostable plastics. So, like those substitute funny feeling green bags that go into the compost bins, find them at the stores now. What's the deal with that? It's It's a good question. Um so a lot of times when things say that they are compostable, um they are not compostable in your in your backyard compost. It's only um in the the high energy that um uh what's the word for it?
010Industrial use. Yes, exactly, exactly. Um so you have to you know, again, be careful and sometimes things get marked compostable I think that aren't actually compostable. I know like the green colored >> [clears throat] >> bags at Trader Joe's for produce, um one of our our Beyond Plastic colleagues actually put it in a a pot and boiled it for hours and it did not break down at all. Um so you just you kind of have to again proceed with caution and see Yeah. I'd recommend on the Beyond Plastics website they have, you know, learn more and they have drop down menus and they have one on bioplastics and compostables. Bioplastics just means that the carbon molecule where the fossil fuel molecule is coming from a plant-based which has its own uh problems. But a lot
011of the chemicals are still added to bioplastics. So bioplastics are not the solution. Uh compostables depends on who's making them. You can get bags from China that says compostable. And a lot of these big uh compostable companies are not accepting them anymore because they're noticing it's degrading their value their uh quality of their compost. Um so that is certainly not the solution. Again, it's probably better than uh just a standard plastic bag if you're getting a compostable bag. Um but reusable has to be where we go. Single-use plastic is what we need to be focused on to get rid of and a lot of that compostable stuff is sold to us so you think you can go get your iced coffee and most of it actually doesn't even make it to the compost. It gets
012into the landfill anyway. And every iced coffee cup you've ever had from Dunkin Donuts is still around in this world, and it will be long after you are dead and your grandkids are dead, and it's not going away. So, we need to get rid of all of that single-use plastic. Compostable or otherwise. The other thing to mention is if if you have like a plastic takeout container that's marked compostable, or it's it's marked compostable, don't put it in with your plastic recycling because it can contaminate the plastic recycling. Um if you are not able to get it to an anaerobic composter, then then you should throw it in the trash because you don't want to contaminate the recycling. Um so, it's a little bit splitting hairs, but it can be challenging. Good question. Any good
013tips for everybody in terms of basic basic mistakes people make in recycling plastic? One So, one thing I've heard is the black plastic is not recyclable. Correct. That's That's correct. Yes. And I think the dark green. The conveyor belts have these lasers that separate out, and it just doesn't pick up the colored plastic. Um so, smaller things slip through, so That's right. Anything less than 3 in like the little condiment like ketchup containers, they don't they're not recyclable either. They're not recycled either. Uh the other thing I wanted to mention about black plastic that many people don't know is that it is often made from recycled electronics. And if you think about putting plastic with electricity, but it's highly flammable. So, when electronics are made for your home, they add a lot of um chemicals
014to them in order to make them not to be flame And then those are melted down, and you really don't want your Chinese food coming home in, you know, what used to be your CD player. So, um black plastic is is a concern. It's not recyclable and and what what it's made with is concerning. Or it's special either. Yes. Yeah. Uh what I mean, Ryan says tubs and jugs are basically what gets recycled, number ones and number twos. So, keep getting things recycled that can be recycled, um but uh still need to reduce because it gets recycled to one more use and then it gets broken down and then it's garbage. So, recycling is not sustainable or not It's actually the current >> It's not Yeah, it's not the answer. Um because plastics, because of
015all the chemicals that they're made with, when they go through the recycling process, um it is really down cycling. You just you can't have a plastic bottle and then um make another plastic bottle from that. Which is different than an aluminum can, which can be melted down and used again um and it come back as an aluminum can. But every time you're um they need to add virgin plastic in order to give it the structure and stability to have another uh new item. So. Yes. Um that leads me to a question that I just thought of when you were saying that was uh the mention of a lot of uh tin cans actually have a lot of plastic in it and is should that be a concern or does it is that contaminating our uh
016recyclable bins when we're getting recycling done like here in town in Ashland? So, it is true and I don't know if you're you remember in the very beginning of the movie they had put aluminum cans in I'm not sure what the solution was, but it was kind of you know, >> melted off the aluminum. Yeah. Um and there was still a plastic sack that was holding the the beverage. Um so, yes, they are lined with with plastic. It's much thinner than a real plastic bottle. Um, but there are definitely still health hazards associated with it. Uh, the aluminum can can be can be recycled and I believe what happens is um, they're recycled at high temperatures so a lot of the plastic melts away. Please correct me if I'm wrong. So on our level it
017shouldn't be considered contaminating the the supply. We should still put our cans >> Yeah. aluminum cans into there. Those are Those are highly recyclable still. Okay. The other question I have is um, can we just assume that like a lot of us here in town use Black Earth uh, to take our uh, compostables. We get the bags from Black Earth. Uh, the the big plastic bags for that. Um, so has anybody checked or we assume that they they are using a supplier that they know that it is a real comp- compostable bag for the way that they compost? I I believe so. Yeah, I yeah. We we did we did so the sustainability committee actually promoted Black Earth quite a bit and we did look at it. I think Matt Matt you were very much
018on the committee at the time and I looked at it and and positively those bags do do compost. I also know unlike the Trader Joe bags if I leave my compostable stuff for more than a couple a few days and it's bad that that bag does disintegrate. So so clearly it's not I know that from my own experience. >> [laughter] >> I double bag it sometimes which I ain't doing but like it is going away for sure. And the other question I had about relating to that is you know, basically they're saying now PFAS is in there. All of us It's all there. It's not going away. It's being passed on for generations. Um, but she was talking to these couples. They were doing certain steps to reduce content of plastic chemicals in their system.
019But, the baseline that we just have to accept there's going to be plastic in our systems for the generations to come. So, it'll take a long time to get out of there. But, we can improve the short-term a lot of things by getting this out. And And the question goes along with that is how do we synthesize this down? I mean, I I noticed there's like what do they say something like 1,400 different uh plastics that the the EU has put on a no use category and we have what 10 or 12 here in the US. Um but, that's a lot you know, put those together uh and that's a lot of different chemical names to pay attention to since we have so few uh that are banned here. [clears throat] Uh is there some
020way that we uh as uh neophytes into the whole thing can start to uh figure out what per plastics we should be watching out for? Uh is there is there really something we can tangibly do to avoid those specific additives? Well, I think the answer is avoid them. Um because it doesn't then it doesn't matter, right? And I think, you know, on the tables in the back we've got a lot of examples of non-plastics that you can incorporate. >> just avoid plastics then. Basically, yeah. For all sorts of reasons, right? I mean, you're not sup- By doing that, you're not supporting the whole industry. Right. Okay. There was an actual study that just came out from Perth Australia that does show a decre- It was people I haven't read the study, so I can't quote
021it exactly, but I think the gist of it was like this. Still been an actual study where people avoided X, Y, and Z and they did show a decrease in So, avoiding it for yourself. It's in our water, it's in the air you're breathing. It It is everywhere, but it it's showing us now there's a little bit of hope that if we reduce our personal exposure, we're going to reduce our own personal health risks. But, we all have to be organizing to because there's 8 billion other people in the world that are not watching this movie. Um and PFAS is that's one of the chemicals that's not metabolized out. We We pee out uh BPA, we and and the phthalates, but the forever chemicals are forever in us. So, um and we don't have an
022EPA a functional EPA right now, so uh it has to happen at the city uh and state levels. Yeah, I'm piggybacking on that, you know, talk to people. Tell them what you have learned, you know, and and going to pass along the the link to the movie. Um and then continue to put pressure on if you have favorite products that are packaged in plastic, write to the companies, you know, try to get on social media and and give them the bad, you know, bad marketing basically. Um and and put pressure on them by not not purchasing it and then asking them to to switch. Um and, you know, gathering again friends and family to to help with that initiative, passing legislation, you know, talk to your representatives, um and put pressure on them to to
023try to pass some laws. And Massachusetts is not good about passing laws on this type of thing. Um but, if we you have more people that know and the more people that are talking about it, um the the better our chances are It's like the quick thing and and support the companies that are um like [clears throat] there's lots of stores popping up, the refill stores, where you can bring your even if it's a plastic bottle, you're not buying a new one to refill your shampoos. I you know, I can switch everything out of your kitchen and your bathroom and uh and the the clothing places that are making natural fibers or now seaweed fibers and whatnot. Um but, there's, you know, in Lexington, Concord, uh Newton, um, uh, you know, the chemicals in your
024plastic wrap is getting into your food. So, doing as much bulk purchasing and whatnot and supporting those companies so that becomes a viable, uh, business cuz they're all scraping by. Well, okay. Why don't we stop by the front here since you have Is it on? Okay, yes. Um, maybe a stupid question, but is anyone working on a filter? Since this is a inorganic material in our bloodstreams, can it be filtered out? Somehow? Um. What what What are you What are you interested in filtering out? Plastics. The plastics themselves. There's some, um, greenwashing happening. There's some companies that are, um, advertising that. You don't do it. Um, there's not evidence that that is actually, um, working yet. And you're just going to be re-exposed. So, uh, I wouldn't put any money into that, but people are
025thinking about that, but I don't think it's at the that the point of I I guess part of the problem would be that we do absorb plastics directly through our skin. So, if you're in exposures, whether it's your carpet, your clothes, you know, if any of the the sprays that you're using, at that stage, what are you going to filter? Your skin's your filter, right? So, yeah. It makes it possible to get in. I think in the bloodstream. Yeah. Yeah, I would just say, you know, it is overwhelming to try to reduce your exposure and advice by changing out things that are plastic with, you know, with alternatives. Um, I put together on our Green Needham website, uh, a page that, you know, kind of goes through each room in your house to offer alternatives
026that I'm happy to send the link to to Rob if he wants to pass that out. Um but there there are some things online too that you can sort of see. So, you can do it methodically and slowly cuz I I when I first started I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm not going to be able to do this." But, you know, just as something is kind of running out, I just look for a better option. Kind of do it do it that way. So, I'm I'm A lot of places solutions to trash is to burn it. And I'm not I'm not a big fan of that, but I am interested. Does if you burn, you know, in high temperature plastics, does that go away with them or does it just spread it even more?
027You're really adding to a lot of issues with air pollution by doing that. You know, within Massachusetts and many states, you can't uh incinerate anymore. So, you're really really reducing >> there forever, right? I mean, you're The the plastic molecules are being broken down with high But they're you're you're releasing your your It's chemistry happening and you're releasing benzenes, toluenes, carcinogenics into the atmosphere. In the US, we have some filters for that, but we're shipping other developed countries They showed pictures of these countries. I mean, there's We've shipped our plastic and Europe has shipped their plastic to Southeast Asia and Africa and they're doing open burns. And we're all sharing that atmosphere. They're using it for cooking. That's their cooking fuel. They're putting plastic under there. Yeah. And a huge issue in Massachusetts is that
028our incinerators are all at capacity at this point. So, much of the waste that we have when they they usually say that, you know, when um Um, they put the trash into burn. It It reduces, but you still have 1/3 of it left. Is that toxic ash, which still needs to be dealt with. Um, so what is happening to a lot of the waste is it's being now shipped out by rail to other states, um, you know, in usually like low-income neighborhoods. Uh, so so you know, at a very high level, not just plastic, but we need to be reducing waste as well so that, um, you know, we're not contributing to the problem. A question on, well, two things. One, we did notice, my wife and I, that if you are going someplace that
029does take out, if you get a plastic thing and you say to them, "Could you convert these? This isn't good." that a couple of places have actually gone to cardboard and and dropped the plastics. Um, my question though is, earlier it was mentioned that petrochemical companies, uh, because they got a bunch of petrochemicals and renewables are coming into play that they're simply shifting it to making more plastic. Do you have any, uh, data on that? Or or what's what's happening there? >> There's actually a lot of data on that, a lot of, uh, business studies. You're exactly right. As we finally wean ourselves off fossil fuels, the oil industry has to find a market for that leftover oil. And a big market they found is disposable plastics, which have really shot up and, uh, allowed
030them to, uh, you know, find find a, uh, channel for, uh, their excess oil. Sad to say. We have a chart from Beyond Plastics that show us what they're projecting. And I don't remember it like tripled by 2060. 25% uh, 50% of all the plastic that's ever been made has been made in the past 25 years and they're we're on track to triple production by 2060, I think. Yeah, there's been enough plastic made to wrap the entire earth in a roll of Saran Wrap. And that's a that's a quote from maybe 7 or 8 years ago, so. Um we have some >> [clears throat] >> a few dishes that were my grandparents and were made in Watertown in the mid-20th century, probably a little earlier than that. Is that still very poisonous plastic or did
031they put fewer chemicals in at that at that time, so? I I would personally worry about that. A lot of older cooking wear and things that had actually had lead in it. Had lead lead paint in it, so. I would be careful. And plastics degrade over time. I mean, if you think about I you know, I had stored some like like Halloween costumes in plastic bags in my attic and you know, you you go back to the attic a couple years later and the plastic bag has disintegrated around it because of the heat, you know, in the attic. Um you same kind of thing happens to Tupperware like old Tupperware containers and you know, other This is much older than than Tupperware. It's it's it seems like a more solid uh plastic, but >> plastic
032but it's plastic. the version that they were making uh back to your comment about the other restaurants switching to cardboard. Um if they're lined so they're waterproof, that's PFAS that's lining it. So, if we have to it has to be reusable, it has to be more sustainable stuff. So, just be aware of the switches. It's good that they're trying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. >> [laughter] >> I didn't say hard. And there yeah, there's regrettable substitutions a lot of times in this world. Excuse me. Um, so I know you've talked about like, you know, recycling and not sort of refilling your containers and all that, but I don't know anything about that. Where would you go do that? Like especially like these big like laundry things that you buy, you can't buy laundry stuff without
033being in a big container. And it's a huge amount of plastic. Um Yeah. >> Yeah, I mean I I think you could Google it, but they're they're popping up. There's I mean to near you. Uh, there's one in Newton Center. There's Concord. Deborah's Naturals has a refill station and all the bulk foods and there's one in Lexington and there's one in Worcester. Boston has one. There's a one in Cambridge, one in Somerville. So you have to if you Google refill stores near me, you have to you have to look. Uh, there is a company called um, Supply Bulk Food that does food only, but uh, she delivers to different uh, areas around the Boston area twice a month and she she is at Dorchester and she fills up with all the bulk shelf stable things,
034packages it in uh, non-plastic items and you can pick up there. So Supply Bulk Food is I don't know if they deliver if she delivers out here though. Uh, are any of those resources listed on Beyond Plastics? >> On the website, so Mhm. No, but Beyond Plastics is a national group. So we have the Boston area. >> are starting to list. I think I thought they they were listing like um uh, fulfilled goods like some of the some of the the the bulk stores. But for laundry detergent in particular, um, doing uh, there's a couple of online recipes to like mix your own um, laundry detergent that can be, you know, much more simplified. I tried to use a powder detergent uh, that comes in a glass jar. It is more more expensive at times,
035but you use a very small amount when you're going through the laundry. I'm trying to remember what the It's like three items. I don't remember what what they are, but I could supply that list to you. Also Also, talk to Diane back there. I think she's jumping out of her seat. She's got some samples of some bulk laundry products back there. >> borax. You got a hard plastic cardboard. Yeah. And there's also like But that does have some alternative laundry stuff. What I'd [snorts] also maybe just offer up is we've got a few resources that we've been collecting as well. So, maybe post this session the link to Beyond Plastics, you talked about another link as well, and you have the studies as well as, you know, some of the reuse stuff we can actually
036post on the Energy Audit Action website. And then, you know, as long as you can get that at least as a basic resource for you guys. Yeah. And there's also like washing soda is [clears throat] another laundry um substitute. I use the sheets, and it's old. They actually have They're plastic, too. Yeah. And it's too fast dissolving. >> Well, actually, they're not good at all. They're quite durable. Okay. So, dry Not dryer sheets, but what like the washing sheets? They They have Yeah, they have They have do plastic in that. It dissolves in the wash. So, you don't see it, but it ends up in the wash. Microplastics. And then it's getting into your water. Same as those dishwasher little things that are in little plastic pods that you would use. Dishwasher pods. Yeah. So,
037the So, the laundry sheets aren't good? From this laundry. It's Nope. If it's more convenient, you have to ask yourself that why. Well, what do we do our laundry with then? Well, you can always use, you know, old-fashioned solid you know, liquid. I used to come in solid >> Yeah. and still buy it if you look hard. If you make it to these refill stores, they have all that stuff and it's all in bulk. Just because the laundry topic's come up a few times. So so right at the back there that this thing these are free samples that are being handed out completely small tablet size thing comes in in in cup in basically a paper bag. Where did you get that? So we've got a lot of information right at the back. That that
038that table right there. Yeah, you can get samples here as well. You can pick up a sample as well. And so I just wanted to point that out because then we were headed down a laundry rat hole here as well. We've got some ideas. I also say that I did follow the recipe for washing soda, baking soda, and like the castile soap. You can mix those things together as a powder. And I did again do the laundry. It's um It's Washing soda. Yeah, baking soda which is different. Yeah, washing soda, baking soda, and then like a castile like a green soap. Um that you can mix together. And they're simple cleaning ingredients that are non-toxic. You know, Tide has a lot of chemicals in it as well as um lots of chemicals. So my wife
039has actually been using that combination with vinegar as well. So she does add a little bit of vinegar as well and >> [laughter] >> Well, we've been needing to say something. >> [laughter] >> No, no, no. More questions? We've got big conversation right now. Rob wants you to get get up, guys. Um yeah, I I I noticed in the movie you know, I talked about the fact that individual action isn't isn't the solution to this which is like a huge problem um kind of being generated by the industry. So, um, and it's kind of disheartening. You know, it makes you want to kind of give up. But, are do are there any regulations or solutions, like systemic solutions, that you see that are working or have given you hope? I mean, yes, you know, there
040there are definitely So, in Massachusetts, uh, 75% of the population, the communities, um, have banned plastic bags. The state hasn't banned it, but, you know, much of the much of the communities in the state have. So, you know, as we continue as I've done my work with trying to ban single-use plastic, I find it really heartening in that when I pick a topic and then I research who else has done it, you know, we all sort of rely on each other in order to kind of keep that that ball rolling. Um, and many states are working to, uh, to ban use plastics as well. I think California just passed a law, which is not amazing, but it's, you know, again, putting more pressure on the producers that that if they are, you know, putting something
041on the market, it has to be they have to recycle it or it has to be recyclable or if So, I think more people are learning about the topic and and more pressure is coming. Um, so, just, you know, keep talking to your, uh, you know, legislative bodies and and looking for, you know, supporting solutions. New Jersey just passed the whole state has skipped the stuff, which it looks like Asheville's trying to pass. And that's where the restaurants don't put in the extra condiments and cutlery unless it's asked for. So, um, there's small things, but they add up. exponentially bigly, yeah. Yeah, I'll I'll just say, like, I think this movie is is, um, helpful. I think the conversation around the health impacts is is a different conversation than you should do this because it's
042good for the planet. I I hopefully that will help shift people's mindset and certainly if this information gets out to people who are trying to have children, I think that's a a real huge um benefit. So, thank you for doing this. I have two questions back there. Curious about where cellophane fits. Plastic. Plastic. It is a plastic. Single-use plastic is one of the worst ones. Yeah. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> You can use a really old jar. >> Like you can use beeswax to wrap like food in. There's there's beeswax wrap. Um I'm trying to think what I mean and just like glass containers, even if they have a plastic lid on them as long as the the plastic's not touching the food, that's you know, can be good. And I think it's not single-use
043so you are reusing it so you know, You said that And you said that Massachusetts was so good about, you know, this business of making the laws, but the president of the Senate lives here in Ashland. So, Put the pressure on. Put the pressure on. We're looking at you, Ashland. >> [laughter] >> Um yeah, it's get keep keep talk you know, contacting their office um because the things will pass in the Senate like the um Becca Rauch who's our senator and you know, brought forth a plastic reduction bill that passed through the Senate, but then never was taken up by the house. So, it just things stall and then they come up again the next Four sessions in a row by the way. Yeah. There's some version of that bill that's gone through. Yeah. Yeah.
044Skip skip the stuff is one of the the items on it. There's a expanded bottle bill that's trying to be passed too where you get more money back so and expand what can be brought back so more stuff will at least get into either landfill or at least one more recycling and that's I mean it's more it's not really reducing plastic but it's reducing garbage and I don't that one is that's important as well. But last question maybe because we we do want to save some time. rhetorical for Dr. Lee What do you say in the medical area? I walk into CVS and I wouldn't think of anything like anything medical or not that isn't inundated with plastic contents, the packaging, everything. And not even outside the in the health care industry we are throwing
045out about 7 million pounds of plastic a day in the US. And I think there's one interesting fact that I it's a little tangential but in the US we are 4% of the world's population but we're responsible for about 30% of the world's waste stream. In the US health care system we're responsible for about 27% of the world's greenhouse gas health care emissions. So I think in health care we've just adopted this like we don't think about where our stuff goes. We just use what we need and we just toss everything and so we're there's but there's a growing movement in communities but also in health care to to look at that being responsible for that part of our climate work and going back to reusables where we can, reducing unnecessary plastic, switching to better
046methods of plastic, better quality stuff that can be reused and and cleaned and whatnot. So there is it's bubbling but I think yeah. Change takes time. Yes. We don't have much I just found out where the plastic comes from in people's bodies like if if you want to make a change I I just is the is the plastic that they're finding people's bodies particular kind of does it come like from your clothing? Does it come from from other things or could it be going through be inhaled or It's everything. It's It's inhaled, it's eaten, it's it's trans- transdermal is probably more of the chemicals, um but we're breathing it in, we're eating it constantly, and then smaller plastics can get through the intestines. We do pass through the bigger pieces of plastic out the other
047side, but um What's the But I think it's every I mean, it's everything. That's an excellent question. There's a lot of research going on that trying to determine the source. But a lot of the uh plastics or polymers have common sources, so And maybe common different meta- maybe different chemicals in some of the plastics. Like in clothing, it would be different, I would imagine. But But in the body, they separate the additives from the from the plastics, so A lot of work going on in there. Our tires are actually she said uh that clothes were the most common form of of microplastics, maybe microfilaments, but car tires are actually the most common. We're like as we drive, the the our plastic tires constantly, so So um when you mentioned medical waste, I'm going to be
048going in for a colonoscopy, and they put my clothes into this, you know, plastic bag that you would get It's going to be in there for an hour or two. Yeah. And I feel like bringing my own brown bag the next time. They won't let me, but this is like Yeah. But you can point it out if there's an awareness that's starting to to bubble. And if you are involved in medicine, that or other organizations that we give talks on this, so that's one of the things that we do with our time, so uh invite us to spread the word. The good word. All right, group, we have a partner up up before you we you guys do before I transition to you. I I do want to call out like within Ashland itself, we
049do have a couple of initiatives that we're working on for reduction of plastic. We've talked about skip the stuff. Uh part of what we wanted to do was actually follow along with Newton and actually also ban styrofoam and black plastic. Haven't quite gotten there because we've got a fair amount of pushback from um you know, businesses, other stakeholders. So, this is where I think a little bit of you know, we kind of have to have a movement internally as well. One of the things that we are doing is steal that. We do have this little card um that that actually is intended for you to be able to go back to a business or a restaurant, basically tell them, "Look, I really want to do this and here are some benefits for you." Um but
050also share it. So, um Sam's got a bunch of those cards there. But, I'd also love to be able to introduce a bylaw maybe in in in fall town meeting. This town meeting was a little bit too much going on and then it uh so so we we skipped it, but um but would love to sort of expand that to then other types of plastics and reduction. And then if you have ideas, you know, we'd love to hear from them. I would say So, I just wanted to make that which Please reach out cuz we've got, you know, bylaws >> Oh, we've been [clears throat] we've been working with Beyond Plastics. I I basically am straight-up stealing inspired We've we've been inspired by by uh Recycling But, I've I've connected with, you know, Newton and
051and Wellesley and other local towns that have have done similar things. And so, we've got, you know, similar wording and um a strategy that's worked so We wrote a bylaw that basically just copied the Newton one except we had to take out the black plastic and the styrofoam stuff because um Great. Okay. >> [applause] >> Thank you very much for this. A little bit more time if you guys want to walk around still if you haven't walked around. Take a look and take some samples or Yeah, make sure you get the detergent sample for sure. Thank you very much.