Who We Are

Our Purpose

CCAPP (Citizens Concerned About Plastic Pollution) is based in Ulster County, NY and works to educate residents about the dangers of single-use plastics, the alternatives to their use and legislation intended to curb and control plastic production and pollution. We are focused on what we as citizens and consumers can do to alleviate and eliminate these problems.

Plastics contribute to the climate emergency

The planet is in a climate emergency brought about by our civilization’s addiction to the lifestyle made possible by overuse of fossil fuels and petro-chemicals. Fossil fuels have emitted enough CO2 to begin warming the planet. The processes of extracting and manufacturing has already created billions of tons of greenhouse gases. These emissions, if they continue, will soon warm the Earth past the point at which human (and possibly, most other life forms) ) can be sustained.

Plastics don’t break down

Plastics have exacerbated this environmental catastrophe. Plastic does not break down to be reabsorbed by the earth as do other materials we use. It cannot even be recycled in the same way as paper, glass, and metal. A scant few forms of it can be reused (and only once or twice) to make other plastic products, but they will end up in landfills or incinerators (themselves toxic polluters) or our lakes, rivers, and oceans, where they are predicted to outnumber marine life in the near future.

Plastics end up in our bodies

An average person consumes an average of a credit card’s worth of plastic every week. Researchers recently reported finding plastic in our blood and in placentas. While all the negative effects are not yet known, given the track record of new chemicals, it doesn’t feel intelligent to just keep on ingesting plastic and hope for the best.

Plastics kill animals

Of course, wildlife suffers enormously from the ingestion of plastic in all its forms, including microplastics and microfibers. Animals think plastic is food. When they consume it, it kills them.

The destruction isn’t worth the convenience

Single-use plastic water bottles and plastic products (mostly packaging) in grocery stores and take-out restaurants, but also straws, glasses, plates, and cutlery), are a huge part of the plastics problem and are entirely unnecessary, which is not to say they are not convenient. But we believe that convenience is no justification for destroying the environment and warming the planet. They didn’t exist only a few decades ago; we don’t need them now.

The fossil fuel industry takes no responsibility for the havoc caused by plastic products as waste, and it sees the manufacture of new plastic as an opportunity to keep itself alive and well into a future in which renewable energy is rapidly gaining a foothold.

We encourage citizens to advocate against these steps backwards through legislation at all levels of government.

CCAPP’s focus is on reducing and ultimately eliminating the use of single-use plastic products through education about alternatives to plastic and legislation to control production, both areas where individual citizens and consumers can have enormous effect. It will take all of us, eventually, to change hearts and minds and habits, if we care enough to mitigate the dangers of planetary warming. If you are interested in this aspect of the problem, there are legislative initiatives to explore -- nationally as well as in New York and several other states-- to make the producer (manufacturer and brands) responsible for the cost of waste disposal and recycling.