Dear Editor:

Every minute a garbage truck backs up to the beach and dumps a full load of plastics into the ocean. Scientists estimate 17.6 billion pounds of plastic enters the ocean every year from land-based sources - which is equivalent to a garbage truck a minute.

Plastic pollution threatens our local ocean, beaches, and wildlife in Coastal Georgia. Sea turtles and marine mammals can become entangled in marine plastic litter, and certain items like plastic bags are often mistaken for food and ingested by local seabirds and sea turtles. Plastic has even been found in our food, water and air.  Unless we dramatically reduce plastic production and the use of disposable plastic products, this trend will only get worse.

Local leaders should act now to enact policy solutions for plastic pollution in Coastal Georgia communities.  At the national level, The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act will help turn the tide on the growing plastics crisis. 

This month we celebrate Plastic Free July, and I invite you to call on our members of Congress to support this groundbreaking legislation that will finally hold companies accountable for their waste and stop plastic pollution at the source. Plastic pollution has no home in our coastal empire.

Paulita Bennett-Martin, Field Representative 

Georgia Campaigns, Oceana.