Pictured Above: Pictured Above: Madelen Lopez voiced her concerns for the affects of single-use plastics on the environment”
Courtesy of Cassidy Schuck
Dear editors,
The threat of single-use plastics has risen to crisis levels. In 2019, the Marine Pollution Bulletin Journal discovered 4 billion microplastics in Tampa Bay waters. We need corporations like Whole Foods to further the effort toward sustainability and remove single-use plastics from their stores. We are coming up on the 13th anniversary of Whole Foods’ ban on plastic bags, but they have not made any further changes since then. They are a powerful corporation with the privilege to change legislation and set the standard for other corporations. Every day, plastic packaging with longer life expectancies than the people that bought them end up in our ecosystems and put our marine and land wildlife at risk. I do not want to further contribute to the damage that single-use plastics have on our environment. It is the corporations who have to set the standard and make this change accessible.
Students can call Whole Foods’ toll-free customer service line, 844-936-8255, to leave a message. Call multiple times to make your voice heard and ensure that the message is passed to company executives.
Madelen Lopez, Volunteer
Public Interest Research Group, USF chapter
