“I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics.”
In the 1967 film “The Graduate,” new college graduate Benjamin Braddock doesn’t follow that advice offered by a friend of his parents. But clearly, the rest of us were listening: In the almost 60 years since the film’s release, plastics have proliferated throughout our daily lives. Production of plastics increased from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons by 2015 — almost 200 times as much annually, according to the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. And production is expected to double again by 2050.
And that plastics future hasn’t turned out to be so great. The problem is twofold: One is the environmental costs of producing plastics, which involves extracting, refining and processing fossil fuels, releasing toxic substances into the environment at every stage.
And still greater is the problem of disposing of them. As plastics break down, they turn into microplastic waste that has been found in the most remote reaches of the world and in our own bodies. Single-use plastics are particularly problematic: Although their useful life might be only minutes long, they can last in the environment for 500 years or more and contain harmful toxins that can leach into the water we drink and the ecosystem inside and outside our bodies.
“Plastic is everywhere — even in the places you’d least expect like chewing gum, tea bags, wet wipes, receipts, coffee cups and microwaveable popcorn bags,” according to an April 2025 blogpost by the Conservation Law Foundation. “Think about that for a minute. Everywhere we go, plastic surrounds us — a material we know threatens our health and environment. Though manufacturers continue to make more and more plastic each year, the way plastic is made fuels a toxic cycle of production, consumption and disposal.”
How do we change this trend? Legislation is critical, and some progress has been made. But our state and federal legislators move faster when there’s a groundswell of grassroots support for change — from individual households, businesses and communities.
One grassroots plastic-reduction activist effort is Plastic Free July, an international campaign to help people and organizations change their habits to reduce the use and disposal of single-use plastics.
Plastic Free July started in 2011 in the Australian city of Perth when, concerned about the amount of plastics going into the landfill, resident Rebecca Prince-Ruiz challenged herself to go plastic-free for the whole month. About 40 friends joined her that year, and since then the movement has grown to encompass 250 million people across 177 countries. With 174 million participants globally in 2024, Plastic Free July now stands as the largest waste-avoidance campaign on the planet.
It has become a time not only for individual households and businesses to try new practices — but for manufacturers to announce plastic-reducing changes to products, packaging and supply chains.
Even though we’re part of the way through July, it’s not too late to get on board and even pledge how you will reduce plastic use for the remainder of the month — perhaps establishing habits that last. Learn more at www.plasticfreejuly.org.
Another organization firing up grassroots change is Beyond Plastics, a nonprofit established at Vermont’s Bennington College in 2019 that now has affiliates throughout the United States. Beyond Plastics offers support for starting a local plastics-reduction group and lays out a rich menu of events and actions to undertake as a group or individually. Learn more at www.beyondplastics.org/act.
Another organization offering help to create community-level change that inspires larger-scale action is Ten Towns, Ten Actions. Created in 2021 by the N.H. Network’s Plastics Working Group, this campaign aims to inspire citizens around New Hampshire to implement collaborative solutions to reduce plastic waste and pollution in their communities. Started with 10 New Hampshire towns, the organization now counts 59, including the Upper Valley towns of Claremont, Cornish, Lebanon and New London, along with adjacent communities.
The organization also offers a menu of concrete actions, ready-made templates and technical support from volunteers, many of whom have already been successful in effecting change in their communities and are willing to help others rethink plastic. Volunteers are prompted to form partnerships with libraries, schools, parks and recreation departments, solid waste facilities, grocery stores and restaurants as well as sustainability committees and municipal administrators.
Ultimately, top-down legislation is needed to create lasting change.
In Vermont, a 2020 law banned plastic carryout bags, plastic drink stirrers and polystyrene food service products, made straws available upon request in most establishments and imposed a 10-cent fee on most single-use paper bags to encourage reusable bag use. It also set up a working group to develop proposals for next steps to address plastic pollution.
Much more is needed, according to the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, for which plastics reduction is one of its core topics for governmental lobbying. “As strong as the new law is, it only scratches the surface of the vast plastic pollution crisis,” the VPIRG website states.
Future priorities in this realm — many of which were generated by the working group — include setting a goal to cut single-use packaging that is toxic, non-recyclable or non-biodegradable. VPIRG advocates for the goal of cutting plastic packaging by 75% by 2030, the percentage being considered by California.
New Hampshire has yet to pass laws affecting plastic pollution.
“Several of our New Hampshire legislators have worked tirelessly for more than 15 years to bring forward legislation to tackle the problem of plastic pollution in our state,” according to the Ten Towns website. “Unfortunately, this important legislation has been tabled or voted down.
“The Ten Towns, Ten Actions Toolkit was developed as one way to show our legislators that they have the support of individual voters and municipalities, thus encouraging them to continue to propose legislation to address the serious plastic pollution problem.”
Want to get started? Here is a sampling of projects for which you can find free toolkits, with ready-made action steps, forms, documents, and more.
Host a supermarket plastic packaging take-back.
Help local restaurants, cafés and bars skip single-use plastic.
Swap the plastic pottles in your local vending machine for aluminum cans.
Help your local Meals on Wheels program ditch disposables.
Host a Repair Fair.
Organize a plant pot recycling day.
Start a ‘Recycle Right’ Campaign with your solid waste manager.
Work with your school administration on eliminating single-use plastics in the cafeteria.
Start a plastic film recycling challenge.
Rebecca Bailey is the communications manager at Vital Communities, a White River Junction-based nonprofit organization.