July is widely recognized as no-plastics month, and Swampscott’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee is encouraging residents to take the pledge.

“There’s so many ways that plastics infringe on us. It’s not just the amount of trash and that it lasts forever,” Committee Member Alix Smullin said. “It’s really a multifarious, bad actor.”

The Plastic Free July initiative encourages people to reduce single-use plastics in daily life, at home, work, school, and even local cafés.There have been over 100 million participants in 190 countries since the initiative started in 2011. The campaign has suggestions for people to bring their own coffee cups to cafes, buy fruits and vegetables that are loose produce, refuse plastic straws, choose reusable shopping bags, and bring a reusable water bottle along as well. More challenging options include avoiding cleaning products in single-use plastic packaging, choosing natural fibers for clothing, switching to plastic-free toothbrushes and alternative sanitary products, and replacing disposable razors with reusable ones.

The campaign also features a Plastic Free July quiz to help people identify the plastic items they use and decide which ones to give up.

The focus on reduction and avoidance has created long-term behavioral changes in 87% of participants, according to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign. The organization also noted that in 2021, globally participants reduced landfill waste by 1.2 billion and recyclable waste by 900 million kilograms, or over 992,000 tons.

Swampscott has made town-wide efforts to help eliminate some plastics. A bylaw regulating plastics in food establishments was passed at a 2023 Special Town Meeting. It prohibits food establishments in Swampscott from distributing takeout containers and utensils made from Styrofoam, polyvinyl chloride, black plastic or any other type of plastic that cannot be recycled in the town.

The bylaw also prohibits food service businesses from using disposable beverage containers lined with “intentionally added” polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The chemicals are long lasting and persist within their environment, meaning PFAS are found in a variety of food products, in water and even in people’s blood. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to some PFAS in the environment may be linked to harmful health effects.

But the provision is only good for Swampscott, Solid Waste Advisory Committee Chair Wayne Spritz noted. He said that the efforts are great but would have a larger impact if even more cities and towns also passed similar bylaws.

“Trash knows no boundaries. It knows no city limits,” Spritz said.

Smullin said the most common question she hears while tabling at the Farmers Market is what residents should do with plastic bags.

“Anything you push into and it stretches can be recycled,” Smullin said, listing places like Star Market, Whole Foods and Target. 

Smullin even suggested that residents place their plastic bags into a reusable bag so that as they leave to go shopping, not only will they have the reusable bags for check-out but they can recycle the plastic bags on their way in.

“It’s really simple,” she said.

Realistically, Smullin said that she knows plastics do serve a purpose, and the Committee is not suggesting people go fully plastic free.

“Plastic is used to keep things clean and sanitized. We have a demand for it,” Smullin said, adding however that the no-plastics month pledge is able to have an “international, global effect.”

To take the pledge, visit PlasticFreeJuly.com.