A Better World is Possible: Nantucket Shows the Way on Banning Single-Use Plastics
Photo: Volodymyr Hryshchenko c/o Unsplash
By Kiera McLaughlin
Nantucket, known for its inviting beaches and community charm, has also been a pioneer in environmental protection. The island has enthusiastically adopted one of the most comprehensive single-use plastic bans in the nation. With communities across the nation struggling to come to terms with the growing dangers of plastic pollution, Nantucket has demonstrated that impactful intervention is possible and offers intriguing possibilities for what Amherst might try.
Originally approved by Town Meeting in 2018 on a voice vote and implemented in 2020, the ban prohibits the commercial sale and distribution of single-use plastic and non-recyclable coffee pods, drinking cups and lids, straws and drink stirrers, flexible can and bottle yokes, plates, bowls, eating utensils, drinking water in bottles or containers of one liter (34 ounces) or less, and single-use plastic bags. Two years later, the ban was expanded to include flushable wipes with plastic fibers and antibacterial chemicals and plastic-stick ear swabs. Plastic nip bottles were banned the next year in 2023.
The bylaw restricts the sale of single-use plastics in all commercial sites, including grocery stores, restaurants, food trucks, gas stations, guest houses, health clubs, boats, nonprofits, and more. However, a resident or visitor would not be fined for using single-use plastic.
High Community Compliance
The Nantucket community has realized a high degree of compliance through a combination of targeted enforcement and cultural shifts.
The ban is primarily focused on commercial sales, distribution, and use. Businesses (restaurants, stores, etc.) cannot sell or provide the prohibited petroleum-based plastic items. Businesses have largely switched to alternatives like paper, wood, bamboo, and compostable plastics (such as polylactic acid (PLA) for straws, cups, and utensils. The high visibility of these changes in shops and restaurants demonstrates broad compliance and is indicative of a cultural shift toward plastic-free consumption.
The town engaged in a major public outreach campaign before the 2020 effective date to help businesses prepare, and the ban followed the successful, voluntary “Stop the Straw” campaign, which saw many local businesses join a pledge to stop using plastic straws.
The town uses a system of complaint-based enforcement combined with active inspections by Health Department staff. Violations are subject to non-criminal disposition fines. Penalties for violations are a written warning for the first offense, $100 for a second, $200 for a third, and $300 for fourth and subsequent offenses.
Strong Resident Support
The bylaw is not enforced for personal use but residents and visitors are encouraged, apparently with significant success, to embrace the “spirit of the bylaw.”
The bylaw does not fine residents or visitors for possessing or carrying banned items for personal use (e.g., bringing your own plastic water bottle from off-island).
Because the ban was passed by a strong voter margin and backed by local non-profits, the community culture strongly supports the reduction of single-use plastics. Residents and frequent visitors are actively encouraged to comply with the spirit of the law by choosing reusable items (like water bottles and coffee mugs) and not bringing large quantities of banned items to the island.
To aid compliance, the town has provided 11 public water refill stations, making it easier for residents and visitors to use their reusable bottles instead of buying bottled water.
The initial motivation to protect the island’s single-source aquifer and marine life and reduce litter has sustained support for the bylaw and has motivated environmental coalitions to expand the original list of banned items. While some plastic items or specific types of food packaging are not currently covered by the ban, meaning some plastic pollution persists, the possibility of banning these items in the future is under consideration.
While the ban appears to enjoy widespread support, some residents question its effectiveness and others question its purpose. Leah Mojer, a resident who has been active in fighting littering, expressed frustration with the bylaw. She said,
“I don’t think the ban has been effective in changing behavior. Maybe it’s kept a bit of plastic off the island, but it has definitely raised costs for the businesses required to comply, which further sours their mood on the whole thing. If anything, single-use plastic use exploded after COVID and has become even more entrenched in the island’s economy,” she conveyed in an online interview.
For her, this ban has not really changed her lifestyle, given her prior attention to eco-friendly alternatives,
“I think if anything it makes me feel angry because if I go into a place that is supposed to be following the ban and they aren’t, it is my responsibility to complain, turn them in, etc. for not complying. That doesn’t feel fair, but that’s how it works.”
This seems to happen way too often for Mojer’s liking. “It literally happened yesterday. I was handed water in a…plastic cup and lid from a high-end bakery and thought, ‘If they aren’t complying, who is?’”
Instead of a ban, Mojer believes the island needs to change its priorities. “Rather than banning plastics, we need to change our perception of personal consumption and take responsibility for our individual impact on waste and the environment.”
But overall, Nantucket’s experience is widely seen as a strong example of how a community can successfully pivot away from certain single-use plastics, driven by both legislative mandate and deep-seated cultural commitment.
Reducing the Waste Stream
Nantucket’s waste management policy is another factor in reducing single-use plastics for the benefit of the island. The town uses waste-stream separation to remove waste in a sustainable manner. Compared to Amherst’s single-stream recycling practice which does not require the sorting of recyclable or compostable items, the island’s waste items are categorized as recycle, compost, and other special processes.
“Reducing the amount of waste generated is the first and most effective and efficient step in minimizing our impact on the health of the natural environment, and in turn our own health,” states the Nantucket town government’s solid waste website. They recommend the use of reusable alternatives instead of the permitted “compostable plastics” (like PLA) because the permitted plastics can cause confusion for consumers regarding proper disposal, as these often require industrial composting facilities and may not break down if simply thrown in the trash or littered.
Rationale For a Ban
At the moment, there is an estimated 75-199 million metric tons (a metric ton equals 1,000 kilograms or 2,204 pounds) of plastic in the ocean, with about 8-10 million metric tons of new plastic added each year. In recognition of the growing impact of plastic in marine life and human health, and out of a growing concern for how plastic pollution has endangered the island’s single-source aquifer, Nantucket took the next step toward conscious environmental practices.
In 2022, the University of Massachusetts Boston found microplastics in Nantucket’s marine life, ocean water, sand and air, despite the ban on single-use plastics, the Nantucket Current reported.
Once seen as a mere buzzword thrown around by climate activists, microplastics are now at the forefront of concerns around plastic use.
Microplastics are defined by the National Ocean Service as “plastic debris” that can come in any shape or size, but “are less than five millimeters in length (or about the size of a pencil eraser).” They are best described by Desiree LaBeaud, pediatric infectious diseases physician at Stanford School of Medicine and co-founder of the Plastics and Health Working Group, who said, “plastics never go away–it just breaks down into finer and finer particles.” These sometimes impossible-to-see plastic particles make up 92% of the plastic in the ocean, according to 4Ocean. A plastic water bottle contributes about 240,000 microplastic fragments in the water that we drink, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Around 78,000-211,000 microplastic particles are consumed by a person each year, and their consumption can cause cancer, infertility and nervous system damage, according to 4Ocean.
While research into the effects of microplastics on human health is ongoing, their impact on marine life is well known. On Nantucket’s ocean floor, UMass Boston found that high levels of microplastics led to corals consuming less food, causing decreased growth.
In a recently published opinion piece in the Nantucket Current, Cynthia Palmer, senior analyst of petrochemicals with Moms Clean Air Force, wrote about the ongoing impact of microplastics on the island despite the ban on single-use plastics.
She shared that many bio-based plastics and cup liners are made from toxic chemicals that become microplastics and have the potential to release climate-heating gases in landfills, similar to what the island attempted to avoid with the ban.
“Nantucket sends a lot of plastic waste to the mainland, but that does not solve the problem, it only moves it elsewhere,” Palmer wrote.
While banning single-use plastics seems like a productive effort in support of eco-friendly consumption, there remains a lot to learn from Nantucket’s experience in order to understand what can make a positive impact.
How Did They Get Here?
While Nantucket might not be known for it, their island is extremely environmentally conscious and there seems to have been a normalization of practices that go out of the way to promote eco-friendly solutions.
Over 50% of the island is conservation land, according to the Nantucket town website.
Past policies also reflect their dedication to eco-friendly habits. In 1990, the island passed a bylaw enforcing the use of biodegradable packaging for all items supplied by vendors from Nantucket in transportation.
The island also participates in an annual “Nantucket Litter Derby.” Since 2019, local resident Leah Mojer has led the derby to remove litter from her home town.
“I started the Litter Derby because I noticed as our population grew over the years, so had roadside litter. I felt like the litter had sort of a wallpaper effect and I wanted to bring attention to it as well as make the act of picking up litter and cleaning up our gorgeous island more fun as a community event,” she wrote in an email.
Each year, groups of teams scour the roads, neighborhoods and beaches for trash. This year 23 teams gathered 15.24 tons of litter in a weekend, making their total around 60 tons for six years, according to Keep Massachusetts Beautiful.
As for the single-use plastics ban, it all began with a citizen’s petition in October 2018, which was eventually approved in a town meeting later that same year. According to Cape and Island, the bylaw was originally controversial, but the town engaged in successful a campaign to prepare businesses and citizens soon after it passed.
The ban was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2019, despite the plan to execute it a year after it passed. In the fall of 2020, the ban finally took effect.
A Better World Is Possible is an Indy feature that offers snapshots of creative undertakings, community experiments, innovative municipal projects, and excursions of the imagination that suggest possible interventions for the sundry challenges we face in our communities and as a species. Have you seen creative approaches to community problems or examples of things that other communities do to make life better for their residents that you think we should be talking about? Send your observations/suggestions to amherstindy@gmail.com. See previous posts here.