OUR MISSION
TO ELIMINATE THE USE OF PLASTIC IN THE COMMUNITY
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retailer support, research, education, and local ordinance.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Reduce Plastic Usage
Start with small changes that you and your family/friends can make at home.
Reduce plastic usage around your food
– bring non-plastic reusable bags to the stores
– use glass, ceramic or stainless steel containers to hold your food
– switch to non-plastic kitchen utensils
– switch to non-plastic cutting boards
Check the labels of your clothes
– gradually replace your clothes made of synthetic fabric, such as nylon, polyester, and rayon with natural fabric such as cotton, silk, wool, and linen.
Join Events
July 18-25. Chicago Climate Week. Stay tuned.
July 20, 7-8 pm on Zoom. Go Green Reads will discuss The Problem with Plastic, by Judith Enck and Adam Mahoney.
Watch The Plastic Detox on Netflix. The movie is about 6 couples with infertility. After staying away from plastic for 90 days, three couples were able to conceive.
About Silicone
It is best if silicone doesn’t touch your food. Make sure the silicone that touches food is not heated. Many containers have a silicone lid. That is ok, given that choices are limited. Avoid those that have a silicone spout where steam exits the container when heated. Avoid cooking muffins in silicone molds or baking pans. Avoid silicone spatulas or other utensils that touch your hot food. High quality, pure silicone does not react to acidic food, but those with a filler may leach into the food. Lastly, silicone is not recyclable.
About Bamboo
Bamboo is often touted as sustainable. Bamboo clothing is called bamboo viscose or rayon. To make it into clothing, it needs to go through several toxic chemicals. In recent years, some manufacturers use a Lyocell process to process bamboo cellulose with less chemicals and recycle 99.5% of the chemicals used. As for bamboo furniture, they are glued together with large amounts of adhesives which often contain harmful chemicals. Furthermore, imported products require fumigation in transit to kill insect larvae which often leave behind a chemical residual.
Guidelines for Plastic Alternatives
There is a lot of greenwashing (deceptive advertising that claims to be green) out there. In moving away from plastic, choose items that can be reused an unlimited number of times.
Guidelines:
1. Check the material to see if it’s natural or synthetic. In clothing, synthetic materials have plastic in them. Non-synthetic or natural materials include cotton, silk, linen, and hemp. For non-clothing items, natural materials include wood, stainless steel and glass. Ceramic is also acceptable.
a. Check the label or material description and fine prints to make sure the product has as little or no plastic or chemicals in them.
b. Do not fall for words like, eco-friendly, sustainable, or recyclable. Those are unsubstantiated claims. Check the description.
c. Organic material is even better. They are grown without pesticides.
d. Socks and underwear often have 3% spandex for the elastic. That’s ok because those items need the elastic to stay on.
e. Do not fall for a cotton blend material, not even an organic cotton blend. If it’s 70% cotton and 30% polyester, then 30% of it contains plastic.
f. Items that claim to be free of a certain chemical. such as bpa, phthalates, or pfas may have other substituted chemicals that are just as bad. E.g. items that are BPA-free may have BPS or BPF that are just as bad or worse.
g. Most paper cups and containers have a plastic lining inside to make them waterproof. Most aluminum cans have a plastic lining inside to prevent corrosion.
h. Most paper, bamboo, and plant-based straws and even some glass straws contain pfas. Drinking without a straw would eliminate single-use waste. Stainless steel straws are found to be plastic-free.
2. For an alternative material that is not natural, such as silicone and bamboo, check to see if they are good alternatives for what you use them for.
a. Check if it has any chemicals that can harm human health.
b. Do not get the analysis from the manufacturer’s website. Check scientific research.
c. Consider how you would use the product. Would you put it in the oven or microwave? Some products leach chemicals when heated.
d. Does it have fragrances that can be harmful to health?
e. Check if the production of the product is energy intensive.
f. Check if the alternative is recyclable, or can be reused for a long time.
Support State Legislation
There are 4 plastic-related bills in the IL legislature.
SB1531 Farewell to Foam – Coalition for Plastic Reduction has been working on the bill for the last 5 years. See Chicago Tribune article. You can speak to legislators about this bill, as well as the POWER Act (Data Centers) and the Wetlands Bill.
Find your rep here. Remember, we only are focused on the House as foam has already passed the Senate. If your rep supports, call to thank them. If your rep doesn’t support, call to ask what would change their mind.
HB1600 Skip the Stuff – require restaurants to only provide plastic utensils, napkins and condiments upon request.
HB4418 EPA Stormwater Plastic Pellets – EPA to require facilities getting a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to control plastic pellets or other preproduction plastic materials in stormwater runoff from their facilities.
SB1872 Plastic Bag Reduction Act – prohibits retail stores from offering single-use checkout bags to customers.
WHAT WE ARE DOING
Retailer Support
We helped Geetha Foods eliminate plastic shopping bags at their store.
Winnetka Farmers’ Market sold 200 – 100% cotton bags on Saturdays through Oct. 25, 2025.
Paper Bag Collection for reuse in the stores.
We previously had a large donation of new paper bags from Evanston District 65.
Research
Patch article by Ivy Sundell, What Does Your Health Have to Do with Plastic?
Other articles:
ScienceDaily, Could Plastic in Your Foods be Fueling Alzheimer’s?
New Yorker, How Plastics Are Poisoning Us
Ecology Center, About BPA and BPS in Receipt Paper
CNN Health, Common Household Plastics Linked to Global Deaths from Heart Disease
NPR, Should You Toss Your Plastic Kitchen Tools for Health Reasons? Here’s the Scoop
California Attorney General, Plastic Bag Manufacturers Settle Claim that Plastic Bags are Recyclable in the State.
See more articles on the Research page.
Education
We have made presentations on What to Use Instead of Plastic at the Skokie Library, North Shore Senior Center, and Niles Senior Center.
We plan to present to the Planet Panther Club at Joseph Sears School for the Earth Day events.
April 30, Sketchbook Brewing Co. Ivy will be speaking to the Citizens Utility Board members about the health impact of plastic.
A 17-min excerpt of Dr. Robert Sargis’ presentation on Plastics & Human Health at Sketchbook.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
for Tips Tuesday… Find plastic alternatives in your daily life.
…and Health Friday. Understand how plastic is linked to all major medical illnesses.
Local Ordinance
Skokie
We are working with Go Green Skokie and a trustee to discuss ways to introduce e plastic bag ban.
Kenilworth
We are exploring ways to have the few retail stores switch to non-plastic bags.
The Plant, Chicago
With the help of The Plant manager, we are working with a few of the tenants at The Plant to replace their plastic wraps, trays and containers with alternatives.
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