New HOPE!

 Do you remember my post of June 20, 2019?  I wrote about the ocean and how it's rising due to global warming and at the same time drowning in plastic junk.

I asked why we're using indestructible materials for things we use once and throw away.  Is it because they're cheap?  They're not at all cheap when you factor in what they do to the earth.

 Midway Island, halfway across the Pacific Ocean, is drowning in plastic garbage. We've all seen pictures of birds who died with a belly full of plastic crap.

We drink water to keep ourselves healthy and we value its purity but we drink it out of a plastic bottle then we throw it away and the earth chokes on it.

 I'm not the only artist thinking and working about this.

     This is "Fat Free Ocean" by my friend and neighbor, Stephen Hall, husband of my pal, Samantha. You can see more of his work at www.stephenhallart.com.

Now there's a Ray of Hope!

  It's called Extended Product Responsibility or E.P.R--that is, those who make the junk should help clean it up!  What a concept!

And it's becoming a law!   S1185, sponsored by New York State Senator Todd Kaminsky, chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, and State Assemblyman Steve Englebreit.  It says

Establishes the extended producer responsibility act requiring covered materials and product producers to develop and implement strategies to promote recycling, reuse and recovery of packaging and paper products.

"We are facing a recycling crisis in our country, and it is essential for government to step up to the plate, mitigate waste and save taxpayer money -- and that is precisely what my extended producer responsibility legislation will do," said Kaminsky.

You can help with this effort by writing to your state senator and assembly member.

It's easy to find their emails and they all have a place where you can send messages.

I can tell you, from my efforts to fix up our neighborhood playground that elected officials respond to mail-so let's let them know that this counts.

Save the Oceans! Save the Birds!  Save the Earth!  Remember-there is no Planet B!