Hi John,
The Foam-Free Oregon bill (SB 543) is scheduled for a vote in the state senate tomorrow. If passed, this bill would phase out polystyrene foam (also known as Styrofoam) food packaging, packing peanuts, and coolers. By 2025, it would prohibit the use and sale of these items, and it would prohibit the use of toxic forever chemicals in foodware containers. This bill is one of our major priorities for the year. Will you help this bill pass the senate by urging your state senator to vote yes right away? [[link removed]]
Expanded polystyrene is a type of foamed plastic made from fossil fuels. Most of us know it as Styrofoam, and it’s typically thrown away after a single-use. When used for food packaging, harmful chemicals can migrate to the food and beverages we eat and drink. As it breaks up into smaller pieces, they become hard to clean up, disperse rapidly, are consumed by animals carrying toxins up the food chain, and exist in the environment for much longer than we ever will.
It’s also one of the most commonly picked up items at beach cleanups. Our rural communities along the coast call the beach winter season “plastic debris season” as massive amounts of plastic wash ashore. Community members invest numerous hours cleaning our beaches and roads. Ten cities in Oregon already have similar ordinances banning plastic foam foodware. It’s time for our state to become foam-free, too. We need to pass SB 543. [[link removed]]
Plastic destroys our health and environment at every stage of its lifecycle–from living near facilities extracting fossil fuels or manufacturing plastic, simply breathing near plastic waste incinerators, or eating food heated in plastic packaging. What’s worse is plastic is literally everywhere; it’s in our forests, in our oceans, and in our bodies. We need your help to make sure that we are doing everything we can to reduce plastic’s devastating effect on our climate, environment, and health. Please join us in contacting our lawmakers today to tell them we need the Foam-Free Oregon bill (SB 543). [[link removed]]
Sincerely,
Julia DeGraw, OLCV Coalition Director
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Oregon League of Conservation Voters
321 SW 4th Ave Ste 600
Portland, OR 97204
United States
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