Single-use plastic packaging is so common in our everyday lives that a future without it might seem a long way off. But examples of what that future might look like are already here.
The United States should look to France as a model for plastic waste reduction policy.
A coastal city takes action to reduce the most common sources of disposable plastic waste.
Americans use and discard more than 390 million straws a day. Seattle's ban on plastic straws is reducing that number, and keeping plastic waste out of the environment.
Washington, D.C., is one of several cities and states that have banned some packaging made of polystyrene (otherwise known as Styrofoam) in recent years. The ban has led to less foam trash turning up in local waterways.
California has been a flagship state for bans of plastic bags, first at the local level, followed by the adoption of the nation's first statewide plastic bag ban in 2014. The bans have been effective at keeping plastic bags out of rivers and off of beaches, and have made recycling more efficient.
