We are all familiar with the challenges of using plastic cutlery. These utensils notoriously fail at the only task they are made for: cutting and picking up food. In addition, they create a lot of single-use trash, are not recyclable, and there are reusable options. In recent years, schools have brought plastic cutlery into lunchrooms. Read More
plastic pollution
Waterville Approves Plastic Bag Ban by Fewer than 150 Votes
The City Council had overriden Mayor Nick Isgro’s veto of its vote to let voters decide whether to ban plastic bags, a proposal initiated by the Sustain Mid-Maine Coalition. by Amy Calder, Staff Writer Central Maine Newspapers news story WATERVILLE — Voters on Tuesday approved a proposal to prohibit larger retail and commercial businesses from dispensing Read More
One Big Recycling Success: Maine’s Bottle Bill
By Bonnie Washuk, Staff Writer Sun Journal news story While recycling in Maine is in the dumps with a tough market and a need for recycling education, there’s a bright spot: Maine’s 40-year-old bottle bill. The bin collecting bottles and cans is in many Maine kitchens. Mainers have been paying deposits and religiously returning cans Read More
Waterville Council to Consider Overriding Mayor’s Veto on Plastic Bag Referendum
by Amy Calder, Staff Writer Central Maine Newspapers news story WATERVILLE — At least three out of six city councilors say they will vote Tuesday to override Mayor Nick Isgro’s veto of a vote the council took earlier this month to place on the November ballot a request to enact a plastic bag ordinance that Read More
Plastic Waste is Everywhere. Here are Some Ideas for Mainers to Reduce Their Use of It.
By Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story Shlomit Auciello of Rockland hasn’t bought plastic wrap, or new Tupperware-style plastic containers, in decades. She avoids using microfiber fleece and washes plastic bags to reuse them again and again. She knows that makes her a bit quirky by modern American standards, but she hopes Read More
What You Can Do about the Unfolding Recycling Crisis
It’s been more than a year since China announced that they will no longer buy the world’s contaminated recyclables, and we are feeling the effects here in Maine. Unless the baled recycled materials (stuff we put in our household recycling bins, among other sources of recyclables) meet a very strict, almost perfect, quality standard—only 0.05% Read More
Food Businesses Trending Away from Single-use Plastic Items
by Laurie Schreiber Mainebiz news story Increasing numbers of Maine food businesses and lodgings are putting themselves in the forefront of national and international trends to switch out from petroleum-based items like straws, to-go containers and disposable cups and plates, to eco-friendly compostable versions. The Migis Hotel Group switched from plastic drinking straws to paper Read More
Maine Environment Spring 2018 Newsletter
Maine Environment Spring 2018: What’s Inside! In this issue of Maine Environment, we feature an important story about big-picture implications of plastic waste, and why we need to shift away from the use of “convenience plastics.” It also highlights the work Sarah Lakeman, NRCM’s Sustainable Maine project director, is doing with local Maine towns to Read More
Plastic Bag Bans Signal Imminent Shift Away from Convenience Plastics
People everywhere are talking about plastic pollution more than ever. Researchers all over the world are studying the unnerving prevalence of plastic in the environment and documenting its devastating impacts on our ecosystems—and their findings are startling. You may have heard the terrifying estimate that plastic will outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050; or Read More
