5. Be Part of the Solution

As the lessons of the Town of Brookline vs. the CIty of X suggests, the best way to get businesses and institutions to buy in to the new regulations is to help them to identify solutions.  Check with the local food service vendors to ensure that they stock alternative products. Compile lists of alternative vendors.  As one health official told me, "For most business owners, the idea of having to separately research and order specific items (separate from their usual supplier)  was just not going to happen."  They just do not have the time or the resources to do it on their own.  This website offers information on vendors of products to replace both polystyrene and plastic bags.

This is probably the most important point.  It is businesses and institutions (schools, hospitals, retirement communities, etc.) that will bear the burden of complying with the new laws.  (And it is usually the Board of Health in each town that will bear the burden of enforcing them.)  Everyone we have spoken to at the local level agrees:  businesses have to understand precisely what products are banned (identifying polystyrene in all of its forms is not intuitive.)  They have buy in to the new regulations up front, and they have to understand how to abide by the laws before they go into effect. Otherwise, enforcing the laws will be an uphill struggle.


To fully appreciate this, compare the Town of Brookline with the City of X.  In Brookline, the Department of Public Health mounted an extensive outreach project, taking on additional personnel (interns) to help business make the transition away from polystyrene food service products. They distributed flyers, prepared an educational powerpoint, held workshops, and gave out handbooks on alternative products.  Inspectors even went door-to-door with product samples. In contrast, Aldermen in the City of X passed their ban with little fanfare.  The result, as a journalist recently reported, is a law that is on paper only:  nobody knows about it, nobody abides by it, and no one enforces it.

Although our campaign in Williamstown has just begun in earnest, we did a lot of legwork before we started, reading widely on processes for effecting legislative change at the local level, and speaking to many activists, legislators, administrators, and lawyers to learn what works and what does not.  We also consulting some guides, such as the Rise Above Plastics toolkit prepared by the Surfrider Foundation.  The following five best practices are drawn from those conversations.

4.  Partner with Businesses and Institutions

Whether you live in a city or a town, it is important to educate the public and build popular support for a law that will affect their daily lives.  If you live in a town, you will need their votes at Town Meeting.  If you live in a city, then you need their support so Councillors and Alderman recognize that they have a clear mandate.


If there are other environmental or citizen's groups in your town, reach out to them for help with organizational challenges and publicity.


Here is what we have done so far in Williamstown:  Meeting Flyer (pdf), Meeting Flyer (docx)"Greening Williamstown" presentation (Powerpoint)"Greening Williamstown" presentation (pdf).

In Massachusetts, the procedures are different depending on whether you live in a town or a city. 


Towns are ruled by "bylaws," which may be passed by the Selectmen, or by the public at Town Meeting.  For a citizen's guide to proposing and passing a bylaw at town meeting, click here.


Cities are ruled by "Ordinances," which are passed by the City Council or Board of Aldermen.  To get an Ordinance passed, citizens need to convince their Councillors or Alderman to vote on it.

You're already doing that by coming to this site.  Visit the pages for Polystyrene Facts and Plastic Bag Facts to learn about the health, economic, and environmental consequences of America's dependency on plastic.  Visit the pages on Polystyrene Legislation and Plastic Bag Legislation to consider the different options for reducing that dependency.

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2.  Identify the procedures for getting local legislation passed in your municipality.

3.  Educate the Public to Build a Coalition

1.  Educate yourself on the issues.

Basic Insights and Best Practices