Officials Propose 4 Bills To Reduce Plastic In Suffolk County

SMITHTOWN, NY - Suffolk County officials announced four proposals to help reduce the amount of plastic and make the area more environmentally friendly.

Members of the county’s Single-Use Plastic Reduction Task Force, led by Legislator Kara Hahn, laid out their plan at a press conference in Smithtown on Wednesday afternoon.

The initiative, directed at both businesses and the County itself, includes:

• banning the use of polystyrene food service products and sale of polystyrene packaging including plates, cups, containers, trays and loose fill packaging,
• requiring restaurants to provide biodegradable straws and stirrers by request only while disallowing plastic ones,
• prohibiting County concessionaires from distributing single-use cups, utensils or beverage straws made from non-biodegradable substances,
• requiring the County to install water fountains designed to allow bottle filling at most of its facilities that have ten or more employees.

If fully adopted by the Legislature, the polystyrene ban will take effect three months after its approval; the straws and stirrers policy will begin on January 1, 2020; the County concessionaire prohibition on single use plastic will be included in all future license agreements; and existing water fountains will be replaced as they age.

"The vast and growing scale of the worldwide plastics problem has become a growing threat to human health," Hahn said. "We as a County have worked, in some cases decades, to address the challenges posed by these dangerous pollutants. Now, with the backing of science and evolving public awareness, support for policies limiting and banning substances that threaten human health and our environment has reached a turning point. It’s time to take a stand against this growing threat."

The bills make some accommodations such as for people with disabilities whose medical conditions require them to use plastic straws. In addition, the polystyrene ban exempts items used to store uncooked eggs, raw meat, pork, fish, seafood and poultry.

According to the non-profit Ocean Conservancy, every year 8 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that currently circulate our marine environments.

As a result, ingested plastic has been found in more than 60 percent of all seabirds and in 100 percent of sea turtles species, according to the Ocean Conservancy.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has classified styrene as a potential human carcinogen and the Environmental Protection Agency says the polystyrene manufacturing process is the fifth largest creator of hazardous waste in America.

This isn't the first time Suffolk has attempted a bill to help the environment.

In 1988, Suffolk attempted to ban Styrofoam use by supermarkets and fast-food restaurants to protect air quality and groundwater from the "hazards and toxicity" associated with their disposal.

However, that policy was reversed a year later due to a procedural issue.

Then in 2013, Legislator Hahn had introduced a polystyrene ban that did not pass the legislature.

"It’s been 30 years since Suffolk first sounded the alarm on the dangers of single use plastic," Hahn said. "During those three decades, not a single piece of plastic has biodegraded. We must reduce use now or suffer the consequences for generations to come."

Dr. Rebecca Grella, a research scientist and educator in the Brentwood Union Free School District agreed.

"My students and I have found a significant amount of plastic in the salt marshes we study," she said. "We have plastic from the 1990’s as evidence from the bottle caps we are finding. There is a tremendous amount of plastic in these marshes and we need a solution.”

Later this afternoon, each of the initiatives will be assigned to a committee with the polystyrene ban and the by-request-only requirement, which are local laws, expected to be taken up by the Health Committee.

The concessionaire bill to be considered by the Parks and Recreation Committee and finally, the water dispenser proposal to be put before the Public Works Committee.

The earliest the proposals can be approved by the Legislature will be March 5th for the non-local laws and March 26th for others that require a public hearing.

"The negative impacts to our environment and public health, due to plastic pollution, is a problem that will continue to worsen with time," Legislator William R. Spencer said. "Taking action now is imperative if we are going to effectively reverse the growing crisis."

What do you think of the proposal? Do you believe it will work to help reduce plastic? Let us know in the comments below.

Photos courtesy of the office of Kara Hahn