While the Eastern Long Island Chapter is still excited about the recent success of our first Skip the Stuff campaign in East Hampton Village, we have an even bigger bill that was proposed in Suffolk County! This is a huge opportunity to significantly impact single-waste plastic reduction!
Update June 6: So far, we have attended both public hearings on Skip the Stuff, organized volunteers to write and call in to express their support, and put together a joint support letter signed by over 30 environmental organizations on Long Island. Now that the legislators have closed the public hearing, the legislation goes back to their Health committee to decide whether or not to move this bill forward.
How can you help??
Please plan to attend the next Health Committee meeting and give a verbal testimony during their public portion!
Thursday, June 20, 2024 at 12:30 pm
Evans K. Griffing Building
300 Center Drive
Riverhead, New York 11901
Recommended Parking Lot on Google Maps
Building Entrance on Google Maps
The meeting will be in the Maxine S. Postal Auditorium. When you arrive, you will fill out a speaker card for the public portion and be called up to the podium. You are given three minutes and can read right off a paper. Not sure what to say? Check out the resources in our toolkit.
If you can't make the next meeting, you have two other options - choose ONE of these two:
- Email a letter of support to frank.tassone@suffolkcountyny.gov and jenna@easternli.surfrider.org. Use this template and our toolkit for guidance!
Make the subject “Written testimony for IR 1371” and the letter can go in the body of the email.
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Call (631) 853-3685 and leave a voicemail up to three minutes long. It can be shorter, though. Here's a short and sweet example of what you could say or make your own:
"Hello, my name is ___, and I am a Suffolk County resident living in ____. I am calling to provide a public comment to the Health Committee before their next meeting on June 20. I strongly support Introductory Resolution 1371, aka the “Skip the Stuff” legislation. As a volunteer for the environmental nonprofit, The Surfrider Foundation, I support preventing waste from single-use plastic in take-out orders. It is a benefit to businesses, human health, and the health of our environment. Thank you to Legislators Englebright, Welker, and Sanin for co-sponsoring this important resolution."
If you'd like to follow along, all information is on the Health Committee page here. During their meeting, you can watch the live stream by clicking the "Watch Live" button in the upper left. Here’s the link to the proposed policy. We will update this page and all our channels if the bill passes out of the Health Committee, but we would highly encourage your action now to increase our chances of success!