Guest Commentary
To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues.
For the past two weekends, I spent hours pickling okra and beets in the same sturdy glass jars my grandmother once reused season after season. As Granny Jean liked to say, “A good Mason jar never goes out of style.”
Supporter Spotlight
Today, that tradition of reuse has been replaced by a throwaway economy built around single-use plastic. If you want to appreciate the sheer absurdity of single-use plastic, try keeping count of every piece of plastic that passes through your hands on a random day. I did it once, and it was eye-opening.
You wake up, use toothpaste out of a plastic tube, squeeze shampoo out of a plastic bottle, pump hand soap from a disposable container, tear open a plastic seal on a coffee bag, and pop a plastic cap off a milk carton, all before 8 a.m. Exhausting just to read, isn’t it? Yet, every day, we use a material — refined from fossil fuels and engineered at a molecular level to last for years and years — for mere seconds, throw it in a bin, and treat it as if it just vanishes.
It doesn’t vanish. Approximately 40% of the plastic produced worldwide each year is for single-use plastic and packaging. Less than 6% of plastic waste in the United States gets recycled, leaving the rest to clog landfills, burn in incinerators, or drift down our waterways. Once in our environment, large plastic packaging bakes in the sun, gets battered by wind and waves, and breaks up into microplastics and nanoplastics. These tiny fragments flood our rivers, seep into our estuaries, and contaminate our drinking water.
The physical toll on marine wildlife is severe. An Oceana evaluation documented nearly 1,800 marine mammals and sea turtles that had swallowed or become entangled in plastic debris in U.S. waters between 2009 and early 2020, the vast majority from species listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Even when ingestion isn’t immediately fatal, plastic can block digestive systems, suppress reproductive hormones, and leave marine life vulnerable to disease.
Continuing down this path comes with a staggering price tag. A landmark report from the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University found that the “social cost” of plastic to the United States, including healthcare expenses, environmental cleanup, and lost productivity, reaches up to $1.1 trillion annually. Between microplastics contaminating our local waterways and toxic additives in packaging, single-use plastics aren’t cheap; their true costs are quietly passed on to American consumers.
Supporter Spotlight
It’s easy to look at the sheer scale of the problem and feel like we’re trapped in a cycle of waste. But we don’t have to live like this. Before plastics dominated the market, people relied on a system built around durable, long-lasting materials and repeat use, just like Granny Jean.
The nostalgic comeback of reuse and refill
Throughout the early to mid-20th century, glass and metal were the gold standards for everyday packaging. Milk bottles and other containers for household staples were routinely returned to local producers, sanitized, refilled, and sent right back to consumers.
Returnable commercial packaging operates on that exact same principle, and it’s making a comeback.
Across North Carolina, we are already seeing reuse systems begin to resurface. On college campuses, dining centers use returnable container systems for meals to eliminate thousands of disposable boxes every semester. Local craft breweries from Wilmington to Asheville have long relied on refillable growler stations, while a growing number of refill shops are bringing the same approach to everyday products like soaps, cleaners, and shampoos.
Because these products require far fewer raw materials and water throughout their operational lifespan, they offer a sensible, profitable path forward. Global economic projections indicate that replacing just 20% of single-use plastic packaging with reusable infrastructure represents a $10 billion business opportunity with major cost-saving benefits for consumers.
Coastal Carolinians have long been ready to address this issue locally. Years ago, Dare County successfully demonstrated that businesses and residents could adapt to a plastic bag phase-out along the Outer Banks to protect their home waters. However, local momentum was forcibly halted when language tucked into a previous state budget effectively handcuffed our cities and towns, barring local governments from enacting ordinances to curb single-use containers and retail packaging.
Phasing out single-use plastic isn’t speculative theory: 15 states and more than 400 counties and cities across the country have already enacted policies to tackle this issue. However, state and local actions alone cannot build out the large-scale system needed to make reuse an accessible option for every business.
Federal action naturally complements the groundswell of local momentum. National infrastructure can make returnable packaging and refillable products viable everywhere.
A pragmatic, bipartisan path forward
Fortunately, the public is ready for a change, and lawmakers are beginning to catch on. According to a nationwide poll conducted for Oceana in 2024 by the nonpartisan polling company Ipsos, 85% of registered U.S. voters support increasing the use of reusable packaging and foodware, while 88% express concern about microplastics in our food, water, and bodies.
Congress has an opportunity to help scale these solutions nationwide through bipartisan legislation like the Research for Environmental Uses and Sustainable Economies (REUSE) Act (House Resolution 7370, Senate Resolution 2110).
The REUSE Act takes pragmatic, evidence-based approach to the plastics problem: it would direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create a report on reuse and refill systems in the U.S in various sectors, such as consumer packaging, personal care products, and wholesale shipping of retail goods. The study would explore viable reuse and refill strategies, the potential of this sector to create jobs, and barriers to implementing reuse and refill infrastructure.
By requiring the EPA to deliver a report within two years after the bill is enacted, the REUSE Act is an opportunity to highlight and expand proven solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. The U.S. Senate has already passed the REUSE Act, and this fall, the House of Representatives must follow suit.
As I sat in my kitchen listening to the satisfying pop of those Mason jar lids sealing one by one, with fingers tightly crossed in hopes that my very first solo batch of pickled okra is actually edible, it hit me just how natural reuse really is. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to protect our coastal waters and human health; we just need to nationally implement systems that last. Supporting the bipartisan REUSE Act is a straightforward, commonsense step toward building a future that values durability, protects our health, and leaves the throwaway economy behind.
Take action for our coast
Our elected officials need to know that coastal North Carolinians expect plastic-free waters and healthy ecosystems:
- Contact Your Lawmakers: Call or write your U.S. Representatives and urge them to cosponsor the bipartisan REUSE Act.
- Join the Movement: Sign the petition to help reduce plastic pollution in our ocean.
