East Hampton Village is Considering a “Skip the Stuff” Policy

Our chapter is really excited about a new opportunity to reduce plastic pollution in our community -- and you can help!

“Skip the Stuff” is a nationwide campaign, started by the nonprofit Upstream Solutions, to stop billions of unused straws, utensils, napkins, condiment packets, and other accessories that are routinely included in take-out and delivery orders. We believe that restaurants should ask customers if they need these items instead of automatically including them in every order.

Our New York City Chapter helped pass a Skip the Stuff ordinance and we believe we can build on that success to reduce plastic throughout the East End region, saving restaurants money and protecting ocean, coastal, and human health from the impacts of plastic pollution. 

We will be presenting to the East Hampton Village Board of Trustees at two of their meetings in December and January. We’ll propose a phased plan that takes the action one step further, by requiring bamboo utensils in restaurants and eventually eliminating all single-use plastic in takeout orders. This approach was successfully implemented across the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and we like that it takes the extra step to reduce plastic waste!

We are looking for volunteers and partners to provide their public comment at two upcoming hearings:

• Friday, 12/15 at LTV Studios in Wainscott, 10:30 am. Sign up here!
• Friday, 1/19 at LTV Studios in Wainscott, 10:45 am. Sign up here!

Those who can’t make the meeting but still want to provide their support can do so in the following ways:

1. Write a letter addressed to the East Hampton Village Board of Trustees and submit it to jenna@easternli.surfrider.org no later than January 17. Use the template in our toolkit and make it your own! We will bring a hard copy to the meeting to be included in the public record. (Please note: this is an option even if you want to attend the meeting but don't feel comfortable speaking. If you do want to speak, you would write a testimony rather than read your letter out loud. See the toolkit for an example!)
2. Share with friends, family, or on social media to spread the word!

We really hope to have a strong show of support from our audience! As we all know, plastic is a huge problem for our environment and for our health. We must reduce our plastic consumption above reusing and recycling, in order to make a real impact. We hope you will join us in this important initiative!