Clean up the trash! My letter to the US EPA Administrator

January 21, 2015

Gina McCarthy,

I am writing to express my concern about the increasing volume of trash and litter across our country and into our waterways, and I would like to ask you to consider some new solutions to this age-old and classic environmental issue. 

Littering is not just a petty issue.  Litter, including food packaging, Styrofoam, cigarette butts, plastic water bottles, and more wash through rivers and into lakes and the ocean causing damage to infrastructure, contamination of soil, degradation of drinking water reservoirs, and a loss of aesthetics.  Each year nearly 20,000 tons of trash washes through the Anacostia River alone, located only a short distance from the EPA headquarters in Washington, DC. 

Of course, proper disposal of trash could potentially eliminate most of this problem.  Yet this “solution” has come to no avail due to the difficulties of getting people not to litter.  The next time you go to a grocery store, consider all of the disposal packaging used on food products, most of which is not biodegradable and some of which leach toxic chemicals over time.  Also consider the challenges of getting people to actually throw their trash away into a proper receptacle. 

Perhaps it is time to address the issue of littering with a different approach.  Therefore, I would like you to consider an incentive-based approach to reducing litter by encouraging companies and consumers to purchase products with biodegradable and reusable packaging.  The EPA could coordinate an effort to incentivize the use of biodegradable packaging with monetary awards or tax breaks.  A few years ago, Sunchips® released bags that could be composted within 30 days.  However, the noisiness of these bags decreased sales of Sunchips®, and soon the company reverted back to traditional disposal bags.  This was unfortunate because this could have prevented non-biodegradable litter from entering the open environment.  If the EPA could incentivize all snack and chip producing companies to use biodegradable chip bags, then perhaps the competition between noisy and non-noisy chip bags could be eliminated (as well as non-biodegradable chip bag litter).   This is just one example of how I think the EPA could play a role in reducing the impact of litter on our landscape. 

The EPA could also consider coordinating or facilitating programs that:
·         Provide a cheap and convenient way for consumers to return packaging to the stores where they were purchased
·         Ban or strictly regulate certain types of packaging (e.g. Styrofoam)
·         Public service announcements that encourage people to reuse packaging (e.g. water bottles, shopping bags)
·         Rewards or tax breaks for companies (or communities) that minimize or eliminate non-biodegradable or non-reusable packaging (e.g. food manufacturers, fast food chains, grocery stores, etc.)

Solutions to solving our litter problem will require innovative, “out-of-the-box” ideas as well as risks as we progress into the 21st century with a world fast approaching 8 billion people.  I hope you will consider tackling America’s litter problem as a serious environmental and economic issue. 

Thank you,

Alex Palmer

Chicago, IL


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