Window cling showing support for the plastics reduction ordinance
The Town of Groton joined over 20 other Connecticut towns on January 7, 2020, when the Town Council passed a ban on single-use plastic bags at check-out. Groton’s ban also includes a ban on plastic straws and polystyrene (Styrofoam) cups, trays and clam shells. The Representative Town Meeting then voted overwhelmingly to support the ban in February. The ban was scheduled to go into effect July 7th, 2020 but due to hardship associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the town opted not to enforce the ban until October 5.
This ordinance puts Groton in the vanguard of single-use plastics reduction in the state of CT.
There is still lots of work to do educating the public and Groton businesses on the ordinance. Spot-checking around town reveals that there is good compliance but also the need to educate some restaurants and carry-out establishments.
PLASTIC REDUCTION SUPPORTER CLINGS
To encourage and celebrate compliance, GCA partnered with the Groton Conservation Commission, The Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Groton to develop a window “cling” that stores can display in their front windows to let the public know they support and comply with our plastics reduction ordinance. This beautiful cling was designed by local artist Lisa Hill. Unfortunately, just as we were rolling out the cling campaign, COVID 19 hit town, and we have had to pull back until the COVID plague has passed. A few businesses are already displaying the cling and supporting our mission. Lets do the same for them!
NIPS Glinting in gutters and lurking in landscapes, NIPS bottles are a familiar eyesore. The tiny liquor bottles are one of the biggest litter problems that remain in the Town of Groton and momentum is gathering at the state level to ban NIPS altogether. To find out where Groton residents stand on the issue, the Conservation Commission conducted a survey of local residents and business owners and found that of 384 respondents, 81% feel NIPS are a litter problem and 55% perceive them as a major problem. Similarly, about 70% of respondents feel that they should be eliminated. Currently at the state level, four bills have been submitted to the Committee on Environment to try and mitigate the problem: Bill 465 expands bottle bill to apply to NIPs bottles and sports drinks; Bill 280 (sponsored by Senator Heather Somers) provides 25-cent redemption fee on NIPS; Bill 6641 eliminates the sale of NIPS bottles in Connecticut; Bill 5811 expands the bottle bill to include NIPS and provides for the creation of redemption centers. The Conservation Commission has recommended that the Town Council support these bills, and GCA concurs.
May 29, 2021 UPDATE
HB 6502 will ban polystyrene takeout products statewide. The restaurant industry is claiming this will be a great hardship for restaurants recovering from the pandemic, but the bill does not go into effect until July 1, 2023. We will be well recovered by then. Groton's ban on polystyrene take-out containers has worked very well. Polystyrene litters our streets and parks, is swallowed by birds and fish and never fully breaks down. Nor is there a recycling system in Connecticut for it. Please let the legislative leaders know how successful and unproblematic the polystyrene ban has been in Groton. You can share this very powerful op-ed from the Connecticut Mirror too. Read more here.
HB 1037 will reform our state bottle recycling system to include juice, tea and other beverage bottles in our deposit program and increase the deposit from five to ten cents, critical for recycling programs to stay viable. The bill also puts a ten-cent deposit on nips, which would be a huge help in cleaning up these little pieces of trash all over our communities. The beverage industry is proposing to delay this increase until other states act and to tax nips instead of putting on a deposit, which would do nothing to discourage throwing them out the window. The bill should be passed as it came out of committee.