From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):
It isn’t hard to see how, to a sea turtle, a plastic bag floating in the water could look like a tasty jellyfish. Or a piece of plastic foam like a good snack.
For years, we’ve known that marine animals such as turtles can and do mistake plastic pollution for food. But it turns out it’s not just because of how the plastic looks. A recent study found that there’s another reason: The plastic smells like food, too.1
Turtles don’t just mistake plastic pollution for food — they’re drawn to it. That’s why we’re calling on state legislators in Harrisburg to support a ban on one of the worst forms of plastic pollution: polystyrene foam takeout food containers. Act now at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=39483.
Polystyrene foam — what most people call Styrofoam — never fully degrades. It breaks into smaller and smaller pieces that blow into our environment, drift into our waterways, and ultimately flow into the ocean.
Too often, sea turtles, whales and other wildlife mistake these floating bits of plastic for food. But their bodies can’t digest it. Instead, they starve with bellies full of plastic. This problem has a simple solution: We need to stop using so much of this stuff.
The good news is that there’s a bill in the Pennsylvania General Assembly that would do just that.2 House Bill 627, introduced by state Representative Tim Briggs, would ban the single-use polystyrene food containers that plague our environment.
This proposal already has bipartisan support and 40 cosponsors. Unfortunately, your state representative currently is not cosponsoring this important legislation.
Nothing we use for a few minutes should pollute our waterways and harm our wildlife for hundreds of years.
We know this approach can work. Maine, Maryland, New York and Vermont have already passed statewide bans on polystyrene. Let’s work to get Pennsylvania to take this important step too.
Tell your state representative: Choose wildlife over waste.
1. Emma Newburger, “Sea turtles are eating ocean plastic because it smells like food, study finds,” CNBC, March 9, 2020.
2. Shelly Stallsmith, “Could Pennsylvania be next state to ban foam takeout containers?,” York Daily Record, March 20, 2019.
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