Companies whose futures depend on plastic production are trying to persuade the federal government to allow them to put the label “recyclable” on plastic shopping bags and other items virtually guaranteed to end up in landfills and incinerators.
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In today’s newsletter: The plastics industry’s efforts to put the label “recyclable” on plastic shopping bags, Maui residents evicted as landlords look to profit off wildfire crisis and more from our newsroom.
Is there anything more pathetic than a used plastic bag?
They rip and tear. They float away in the slightest breeze. Left in the wild, their mangled remains entangle birds and choke sea turtles that mistake them for edible jellyfish. It takes 1,000 years for the bags to disintegrate, shedding hormone-disrupting chemicals as they do. And that outcome is all but inevitable, because no system exists to routinely recycle them. It’s no wonder some states have banned them and stores give discounts to customers with reusable bags.
But the plastics industry is working to make the public feel OK about using them again.
One year ago this month, the Lahaina wildfire in Maui killed more than 100 people, destroyed over 2,200 structures and displaced nearly 13,000 residents, the police said.
Soon after the blaze, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and his lieutenant governor signed a series of emergency proclamations barring landlords on Maui from evicting tenants or raising rents in most cases. Despite that, some Maui property owners have capitalized on the crisis by pushing out tenants so they can house wildfire survivors for a lot more money.
Honolulu Civil Beat reporter Nick Grube, in partnership with ProPublica, has been speaking to people who have been displaced from their homes on Maui and investigating how one of the country’s most expensive rental markets was made worse by both the fires and the aid programs that followed.
We need to hear from anyone who has been touched by what many say is a secondary housing crisis after the fires. Have you faced eviction or a rent increase? Are you a landlord or property manager? Tell us how you’ve been affected.
