Vote YES On The Bozeman Plastic Ordinance!
Bozeman’s Plastic Ordinance Will:
Prohibit Businesses From Distributing Single-Use Plastic Bags and Styrofoam Containers
Limit Straws and Beverage Stirrers so that They Are An “Upon Request” Item Only
Cost Taxpayers Nothing
Take Effect May 1, 2025
Plastic Ordinances Are Effective!
12 States & Over 500 Municipalities Have Already Banned Single-Use Plastics.
Plastic Bag Bans Successfully Reduce Plastic Bag Litter by at Least One-Third Wherever They Have Been Implemented
Businesses Report Significant Money Saved
Plastics Ordinances Cost Tax Payers Nothing!
Why Is This Important?
The plastic waste we cannot see may be more dangerous than what we can.
Microplastics are in Montana’s Water and Wildlife.
Researchers in 2019 found plastic in more than half of Montana's streams, including 35 fishing sites.
(The top three were the Big Pine campground on the Clark Fork River outside Missoula, the Little Blackfoot River fishing access site, and Yankee Jim on the Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley).
Microplastics have also been detected in Flathead Lake, where they can interfere with the food web because animals like zooplankton and fish may eat them.
In 2021, microplastics were found in the stomachs of cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake.
Microplastics are in our bodies.
Microplastics have been found in human brain, intestine, lungs, liver, spleen, and heart, as well as in blood, breast milk, and the placenta.
In September 2024, the National Library of Medicine posted a study (in preprint) showing high concentrations of microplastic in the human brain. Polyethylene, the kind of plastic used to make disposable bags, was the most common by far.
In May, investigators found microplastics in 100% of the human and dog testes they studied.
In March, researchers reported finding microplastics inside of plaque taken from human carotid arteries. Those patients had a 450% increased chance of suffering heart attacks and strokes.
Plastic Waste Destroys Montana’s Wilderness
Researchers in 2019 found plastic in more than half of Montana’s rivers, including 35 fishing sites
Microplastics threaten the health of trout, and have been found in the stomachs of native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout.
For more information, click here.
Polystyrene (Styrofoam) Is Dangerous.
Styrene, the base chemical of polystyrene, is a human carcinogen.
Polystyrene in the environment is almost impossible to clean up. It breaks into tiny pieces that persist in the ecosystem for centuries.
For more information, click here.
Microplastics Threaten Human Health
Microplastics have now been found in the human brain, arteries, testicles, and nearly every other organ sampled.
Chemicals leach out of these particles constantly. Researchers think of them as “trojan horses” because their impacts are often toxic.
Plasticizing chemicals can be carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and disrupt hormones from thyroid and insulin to estrogen and testosterone. They are linked to diabetes, obesity, ADHD, autism, infertility, numerous cancers, and many other disorders.
For more information, click here.
