MASSPIRG director to state lawmakers: No shortage of ideas for waste solutions

MASSPIRG members and many others are doing their part to reduce their contribution to the state's waste problem. It's time for lawmakers to do theirs.

MASSPIRG members and many others are doing their part to reduce their contribution to the state’s waste problem. It’s time for lawmakers to do theirs.

MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz gave state lawmakers a set of options to achieve that goal in her Aug. 13 letter to the editor of the Boston Globe. Among the ideas: expand the state’s bottle bill, to promote the recycling and reuse of more single-use beverage containers; ban polystyrene foam takeout containers and cups; ban plastic grocery bags, as so many cities and towns already have done; and pass right-to-repair legislation, to make it easier to repair gadgets instead of tossing them.

While the planet has finite resources, wrote Janet, we have a surplus of ideas for conserving them. “Our lawmakers should embrace these ideas, and follow the lead of the people of Massachusetts who are ready to reduce, repair, reuse, and recycle our way out of the waste crisis.”

Read Janet’s letter.

Photo Caption: MASSPIRG State Director Janet Domenitz (right) advocates for Zero Waste alongside coalition partners. Credit: Staff