Pass The Beyond Plastics Bill
With the intertwined plastic pollution and climate crises mounting, we recommend attempting to ban many of the most common sources of single-use plastic pollution—plastic bags, plastic straws, stirrers, and splash guards, polystyrene, and balloon releases—in one fell swoop! By wrapping all of these things into one law, you can save yourself years of time and effort and get these problem items under control much more quickly. Or, if your political situation is more challenging, you can also try to ban these items one by one.
Not only are these items major sources of single-use plastic pollution, they are also things that are either relatively easy to replace with plastic-free and/or reusable options or to simply do without altogether.
It can be done—both Vermont and New Jersey have recently passed similar laws and your city, county, or state could be next… Dig in below to learn how you can get more ban for your buck.
** Please note that some states have passed harmful preemption laws that prevent banning plastic bags and other items. Click here to find out if your state has passed a preemption law. If so, you will not be able to pass the Beyond Plastics Bill and should focus on trying to get your state to strike down its preemption law.
SAMPLE BILL
We’ve drafted a top-notch sample bill that you can use to kick-start the process of getting your city, county or state decision-makers to pass it. Click here to download the sample bill as a Microsoft Word document.
Please note that if your state, county or municipality already has some single-use plastic bans in place, you should adapt the sample bill to remove those items.
SAMPLE PETITION
Gathering petition signatures is an excellent way to recruit supporters and demonstrate broad public support for the Beyond Plastics bill. Click here to view our sample petition language you can use as a starting point for your own version of the petition.
Although you can circulate a paper petition (click here for a Microsoft Word petition document), an online petition may prove more powerful. Contact Alexis Goldsmith if you would like to set up your own instance of Beyond plastics’ Action Network toolset to centralize your signature collection and email tools.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT
Social media can be a powerful took to help gather supporters and also to let elected officials know this is an important issue that they should prioritize.
We’ve put together sample content you can share on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well as some ready-to-use graphics to help illustrate the bill.
Browse the toolkit to get started now but please don’t be afraid to make your own materials as your work advances.
SAMPLE LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The opinions page is one of the most-read pages of any paper making letters to the editor an effective way to reach a large audience including your local and state elected officials who tend to the editorials pages regularly.
And even if your letter does not get published, you are still helping to educate the editors on these issues and increasing the chances that they will publish letters on this topic in the future.
We’ve drafted a sample letter you can use as a starting point for creating your own letter about the Beyond Plastic bill. P.S. Don’t forget to pay attention to the paper’s maximum word count and read our tips on how to write an effective letter to the editor here before you get started.
GET THE FACTS
Having facts at your fingertips will help you make the case for the necessity of passing the Beyond Plastics bill to your local or state decision-makers.
Browse the fact sheets for each item below to help bolster your arguments: