Placed a plastic lid on our Seder plate to be mindful of the “plague” of plastic. Photo: Karen L. Grossman.
Passover’s “Plastover” event focused on cleaning up the river system in our backyard and combatting the “plague” of single-use plastics.
Led by community member Karen L Grossman, the event, which ran during Passover, was a public education effort to encourage our community to give up plastic.
Some actions that participants took included:
Giving up water bottles, plastic wrap and plastic straws
Using flushable poop bags for dog walks
Not ordering take-out from restaurants that do not use sustainable packaging materials
Bought re-usable items for family as gifts to get them out of plastic
Cooked the Passover meal to avoid take-out plastic containers
Telling friends/family who don't live near here about Plastover so they might initiate similar actions where they live using ours as a model.
“Every Passover, Jews around the world give up leavened bread – hametz. It’s a sacrifice we make willingly, to recall our ancestors’ journey from slavery to freedom,” said Karen L. Grossman. “For Plastover, so many of our community members joined me in making another kind of sacrifice –mindfully freeing ourselves from the plague of plastic waste.”
Even though Plastover is done, we hope that you will continue to learn more about the dangers of plastic pollution to our environment, work with us to make system changes, and of course continue to commit to taking personal action!
Resources
Watch the Plastover Kick-off with presentation by Andy Hrycyna, MyRWA Watershed Scientist, and Karen L. Grossman, leader of Plastover and member of Temple Shir Tikvah
Infographic on Microplastics and how they go from clothes to food (Emma Gildesgame)
NPR: How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
Nature: Future scenarios of global plastic waste generation and disposal
Actions
Personal Actions:
· Commit to learning more about reducing plastic at its source—by reading some of the great resources below.
· No plastic wrap—instead use Bees Wrap or other projects.
· DIY products: Make your own cleaning products, shampoo.
· Give up plastic straws
· Give up plastic water bottles—instead using stainless steel or glass bottles.
· Replace plastic bags with cloth or nylon.
· Use microplastic catching bag to stop the microplastics from entering our rivers, ponds and streams when you wash your synthetic garments. Go a step beyond and buy your clothes from resale shops.
Make some system changes:
· Call your local representatives to find out where they stand on plastic pollution, and encourage them to support bills that address this issue.
· Ask your favorite restaurant to move their to-go containers to plastic-free options, or even to do an audit of their operations to find out how to rid their kitchens of plastic.
· Find out if your city or town has bans on plastic bags or other types of plastic—if not form a committee. Live in the Mystic River Watershed—join our policy team—this volunteer team has helped advocate for plastic bans in some of our local communities.
· Encourage organizations you belong to and your employer to go “plastic free.” That means no more plastic at events! This includes plates, silverware, to-go containers etc.
· Planning an event or conference—or are involved in one coming up—ask them to go plastic free, and do not provide any plastic swag (including reusable water bottles).
