The village of Bayfield has become the first community in North America to be recognized as a plastic-free community.
Ray Letheren was one of the leaders in making Bayfield a Blue Community and said they're not asking people to get rid of everything plastic, but they are asking people to eliminate single-use plastics in their businesses and in their homes and they are having some success.
Letheren said they went around to all of the restaurants and eateries in the village and eleven of thirteen have agreed to get rid of single-use plastics. He added they've provided them all with alternatives by giving them table water bottles that remind people tap water is a good alternative to water in plastic bottles.
Letheren points out they've also installed five refill stations in the village for people to fill the 2,500 bottles that they've distributed, so, he says they're determined to get all the retailers and community members on board to have a serious look at the single-use plastics we have in our businesses and in our homes. He said that people are astonished to learn there are somewhere around 220,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre in the oceans, but there's double that in the Great Lakes.
“We have gone around to all of our eateries and eleven of thirteen of them have agreed to rid themselves of any single-use plastics. We've provided them all with alternatives by giving them table water bottles that remind people tap water is a good alternative to water in plastic bottles," said Letheren. "We've installed five refill stations in the village for people to fill the 2,500 bottles that we've distributed, so we're hell-bent-for-election to get all the retailers on board and our community members on board to have a serious look at the single-use plastics we have in our businesses and in our homes.”
