The Beyond Plastics Grass Roots Advocacy Training for Local Groups was a 2-hour online training offered by the Beyond Plastics organization in late October. It was very well done and built on the things I learned but never fully applied in the HoLLIE (Howard County Legacy Leadership Institute for the Environment) back in early 2018. The focus of HoLLIE was broader….but learning to have productive interactions with government (particularly at the local level) was very similar. Perhaps having a narrower focus will make it easier for me to go beyond public outreach.

The session was recorded, and they committed to sending out reference links afterward – primarily to items within the Beyond Plastics site. I managed to get some in my notes and have already started reviewing them.

My first action was to craft an email to everyone I know that might be interested in forming a local group in the Springfield area….hoping to find at least 3 people to form a local group… and start identifying our partners.

Missouri has a ‘ban on bans’ law that will limit our advocacy, but there are still a lot of opportunities to increase awareness of the issue and begin to reduce plastics (and microplastics) in our environment. The key for our local group will be to pick a reasonable initial goal…and start.

I also found out about an upcoming webinar: Protecting Our Health: Toxic Chemicals in Plastics on November 12th at 6 PM CT and signed up for that.

And I pre-ordered Judith Enck’s book: The Problem with Plastics coming out in early December.

Beyond Plastics is a great resource and will be very helpful as we develop our goal(s) and plan. I have signed up to get their emails.

Previous Plastic Crisis posts

The Show-me Less Plastic workshop that I attended was provided by a partnership of Missouri River Bird Observatory and Stream Teams United. It is specific to Missouri but part of a nationwide effort from Beyond Plastics. The parts of the workshop that were local to the Springfield, Missouri area were provided by James River Basin Partnership.

It was held in a Springfield library (the photo is of a sculpture in the library) with a Panera Bread that catered the plastic-free lunch.

There was an overview of why plastic pollution is a crisis (health of everything on the planet including us is at increasing risk)…but the audience was already onboard with that. We were also aware of the long-term message from the plastics industry that the convenience of single-use plastic is so fabulous that we simply need to be more successful at recycling to resolve any problems…but recycling hasn’t worked and it is unlikely to ever be sufficient. The industry is assuming that recycling will not work since they are projecting a huge demand for new single use plastic production to take the place of their revenue stream from fossil fuels trending down as more renewable energy becomes available. The problem is huge and may very well be a more imminent threat to lives that climate change.

The bulk of the workshop was focused on going beyond what an individual can do: community education and outreach, influencing business and policy makers….first steps.

I am writing this the day after the workshop. There will be a follow-up email from the workshop coordinators. There are still some things I am working on as an individual to reduce my family’s risk (but it is not possible to eliminate exposure micro and nano plastics…and it will get harder as there are more plastics in the environment). I have a tentative list of actions, but I want to work with a local Beyond Plastics Affiliate to be with others that are taking similar actions.