Dear friends,
Some folks dress in green today. Instead, we’re going to act green. It feels right. Spring is in the air.
My favorite climate person — my very own springling — frequently reminds me that the responsibility for reducing waste cannot be borne by consumers alone. It is almost impossible to avoid plastic packaging, even if you try very hard.
Recently, I conducted an extended correspondence with Oral-B’s customer service team, as I tried to locate the dental floss refills that go in their refillable — plastic :( — containers. Initially, they just sent me the link to the biggest container, the one they call refillable, and I had to ask what makes the refillable if I can’t buy the refills.
Eventually, they sent a link for the refills, which they would not sell to me directly. Fun fact: The refills cannot be purchased at Target stores in the city, at all, and can only be ordered online with orders over $35 (not kidding), so we knuckled under and got them at Amazon.
As consumers, we have a lot of choices, but too often, we have no good ones. This is reason enough to support the Extended Producer Responsibility Act, a NYS bill
which would place the responsibility on producers, rather than overwhelmed municipalities, for recycling or otherwise responsibly disposing of packaging waste at the end of its lifetime.
The program is designed to reimburse local governments for the expenses of collecting and processing recyclables. Producers, in turn, will pay for the collection and recycling of the packaging materials they distribute.
The overarching goal is to get producers to reduce packaging waste. I would also like to reduce my burdensome customer service correspondence.
Call on your legislators to pass the Extended Producer Responsibility Act. This is a 15-second(!) action from the New York League of Conservation Voters.
After more than a year of work, NYS’s Climate Action Council has released a draft of the plan intended to guide our state’s transition off fossil fuels and toward climate justice.
As members of the public, we have the opportunity to submit comments on the proposed scoping plan. NY Renews has created a new comment on transportation issues for this week. Raise your voice to shift the emphasis away from electric cars and toward fossil-free public transportation options that will help to address systemic racism and poverty.
Use this 15-second (!) action from NY Renews to let our state legislators know that we want to expanded, electrified, and improved public transportation.
If you missed their last ready-made comment, here’s your second chance:
Use this 15-second (!) action from NY Renews to let our state legislators know that we want to phase out fossil fuel combustion technologies and protect low-income New Yorkers from high utility rates.
I got an infuriating text message yesterday to inform me that the city is pausing the expansion of curbside composting.
Expansion of curbside composting outside of community boards currently receiving service is paused until further notice. We are working with the City’s new Administration to evaluate the program and determine the best service model to help New Yorkers divert food waste from landfills.
Contact the mayor to voice support (again!) for curbside composting. This action is ready-made and updated!
Not only will Fair Pay for Home Care save public money, but care jobs are also green jobs. They are powered by humans and the only emissions are sighs of relief from family members and those who get the care they need.
Call the Governor again! Call 518-474-8390. Press "3", then "2" in order to speak to a live person. Tell her to join the Assembly and Senate and take a nation-leading stand on Fair Pay for Home Care.
“We’ve seen this script before, and we cannot allow the fossil fuel industry to collect a massive windfall once again by taking advantage of an international crisis. I propose sending Big Oil’s big windfall back to the hardworking people who paid for it at the gas pump. Over the longer term, speeding up the transition to renewables will lower energy costs, insulate consumers from price spikes, and reduce Western nations’ dependence on foreign despots and greedy fossil fuel companies.
One commentator, who grimly notes that it will take multiple lightning strikes in DC to get the Windfall Profits Tax through Congress, also explains why the proposal should garner true bipartisan support:
[W]hat’s critical about this policy is how it actually builds on what Democrats and Republicans, on a bipartisan basis, did successfully at the outset of the pandemic to help people suffering from the economic fallout.
. . .[T]his rebate, which would go up or down depending on the price of oil, is essentially a shock absorber for inflation. When inflation is high, people would get a bigger rebate. When it recedes, the rebate would phase out.
Call on Congress to pass a windfall profits tax on Big Oil profiteers. This 15-second(!) action is from Fossil Free Media (scroll down on the landing page to get to the petition).
I queried a loved one about why they read my posts but take so few actions. [Note: I can see this on Substack’s back end.]
It turns out that I am not the only one with a robust to-do list each day, and that there is a legitimate concern about getting bogged down in one’s inbox.
So, for all the folks on this list who are doing a lot each day, I have highlighted the 15-second (!) actions that require no copying or pasting or composing of any kind.
It is easy to disparage clictivism, however I am bringing you some off-the-beaten path actions that raise the attention of decision-makers. And it’s okay if you don’t click on the links. My mission is education and activation. Thank you for reading!
with love,
L