To the Editor:
It can seem overwhelming, the trash piling up around us. Like an overflowing bathtub with the faucet turned fully on, we’re scooping away at the unstemmed tide of trash with an ineffectual teaspoon.

We bury it in ever-growing landfills and dump it into the ocean. About 16 to 18 percent of our waste is single-use plastic that we try to recycle — and should — but in truth only about 8 percent of  plastic recyclables ever get recycled. We also send our plastic waste to Asia to deal with, but it’s as hopeless a task for other countries to manage as for us.

Last week’s Enterprise story “Environmentalists critique waste incineration in CLEAN Future Act,” April 8, 2021, highlighted a belief some policymakers have, that incinerating trash is a good waste-management solution because burning trash not only gets rid of waste, but produces energy in the process.

Waste-to-energy is no solution at all. There’s abundant evidence that incinerating waste produces toxic air pollution and the highly concentrated leftover fly ash ends up in landfills and scattered throughout the environment.

A current Congressional bill, introduced in the House and Senate, called the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, is an excellent step toward addressing plastic pollution at the source by making manufacturers responsible for end-use disposal of single-use plastic. Another provision requires a national bottle bill.

This bill appropriately shifts financial responsibility for waste from consumers and municipal government to manufacturers. The fact is, consumers have little choice about purchasing plastics and other waste that will only be used once.

Next grocery shopping trip, try to avoid buying things that you know will immediately be tossed away — your cart will be nearly empty. Still, we all feel the message that, if we would just use that blue recycling bin conscientiously, we could solve this waste-management problem.

It is critical that we pass legislation to begin to tackle our waste management problem at the pollution-production point. Waste-to-energy is a myth that will only encourage greater production of waste and subsequent toxic incineration.

If you have been thinking about that one action you can take to make a positive difference for the environment, please ask Congressman Paul Tonko and Senator Chuck Schumer to co-sponsor the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is already a co-sponsor.

Also, please ask Congressman Tonko to drop the provision of “qualified waste-to-management” from his bill, The CLEAN [Climate Leadership and Environmental Action] Future Act, which is otherwise a good bill.

Happy Earth Day!

Fran Porter

Altamont