From left are Ted Newman, Rural Action’s Zero Waste Director; Milena Miller, Athens ReThink Plastics member; Melanie Moynan-Smith, Athens ReThink Plastics member; Councilwoman Solveig Spjeldnes, 1st Ward Athens City Council member; Tanja Moore, Ace Hardware employee; Saraquoia Bryant, owner of Cool Digs; George Wallace, contractor; Casey Leach, Ace Hardware co-owner; and Reed Singer, Ohio University student; pose in front of a sign recently installed at Ace Hardware on Richland Avenue, Athens. The signs encourage customers to bring their own bags to the store, in an effort to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags.
Athens ReThink Plastics members, from left, Milena Miller, Dawn Harman and Melanie Moynan-Smith pose in front of a sign the organization recently installed at Ace Hardware on Richland Avenue.
From left are Ted Newman, Rural Action’s Zero Waste Director; Milena Miller, Athens ReThink Plastics member; Melanie Moynan-Smith, Athens ReThink Plastics member; Councilwoman Solveig Spjeldnes, 1st Ward Athens City Council member; Tanja Moore, Ace Hardware employee; Saraquoia Bryant, owner of Cool Digs; George Wallace, contractor; Casey Leach, Ace Hardware co-owner; and Reed Singer, Ohio University student; pose in front of a sign recently installed at Ace Hardware on Richland Avenue, Athens. The signs encourage customers to bring their own bags to the store, in an effort to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags.
Submitted Photo
Athens ReThink Plastics members, from left, Milena Miller, Dawn Harman and Melanie Moynan-Smith pose in front of a sign the organization recently installed at Ace Hardware on Richland Avenue.
Ace Hardware on Richland Avenue, Athens, has the first signage from Athens ReThink Plastics hopes encouraging customers to bring their own bags to carry their purchases home.
The sign was installed March 9.
Ace Hardware’s new owners, Corey and Casey Leach, agreed to allow Athens ReThink Plastics to install the sign outside their doors. These signs and their installation are paid for by a grant from the Ohio Sierra Club and are a result of similar signage found outside Friendly Paws Pet Supplies and Grooming on Athens’ Far East Side.
Many Ace Hardware employees watched the installation, and co-owner Casey Leach acknowledged how plastic bags hurt the environment. Two employees who are deer hunters said they noticed the group’s ReThink Plastics billboards on Ohio Rt. 32/U.S. Rt. 50 heading northeast from Albany and U.S. Rt. 33 heading northwest to Columbus. The image shows a large deer holding a plastic bottle in its mouth, with the slogan, “Only you can say no to plastics.”
ReThink Plastics was formed in 2019 to educate the public about the negative effects of plastics on their health and environment and what can be done to reduce plastics usage. Single-use plastics, which are completely non-biodegradable, account for nearly 50% of all plastics produced globally and contribute to the massive onslaught of trash worldwide.
Athens ReThink Plastics hopes to install more of these signs to encourage the use of shopping bag alternatives to single-use plastic. While retailers may not be able to curb the sale of all plastic products, they can become aware of the community and world’s growing trash problems.
Retails can also realize they have little control over the end of single-use plastic’s life cycle. In other words, while they sell products, they have no control of how customers dispose of or recycle those items.
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