On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) posted on Twitter to announce that he had met with c-list “Good Place” actor and current “climate change” activist to discuss the environment.
Last Friday, Danson was arrested alongside longtime activist and actress Jane Fonda at a climate change protest at the U.S. Capitol.
Udall’s tweet read “Wonderful meeting today with [Ted Danson] and @oceana to discuss the importance of passing my legislation to confront the plastic pollution crisis. Doing so is essential to save wildlife and protect our health, and I’m excited to have such a committed friend in this fight with me!”
According to Sen. Udall’s website, the legislation he is proposing would include “phase-outs of certain single-use consumer products,” meaning bans on single-use plastic consumer products, which would presumably include plastic bags, bottles, straws, forks, knives, and other items.
Udall believes that the banning of such materials would “prevent plastic products from polluting lands and waterways,” although the World Resources Institute (WRI) contends that bans on such products “won’t solve our plastic problem” because bans would merely substitute the products with inferior replacements.
WRI notes that “Denmark’s Ministry of Environment and Food found that you would need to reuse a paper bag at least 43 times for its per-use environmental impacts to be equal to or less than that of a typical disposable plastic bag used one time,” which does not make sense financially or environmentally.
Udall’s bill seems to have the right intentions behind it, especially since no one wants to have dirty oceans, lakes, rivers, streets, or homes, that does not mean that banning plastic products is the right course of action to minimize the impact of single-use plastic products, especially since they would just be replaced with single-use paper or biodegradable products.
Ted Danson testified in front of the House Committee on Natural Resources on behalf of Udall’s bicameral legislation with Rep. Adam Lowenthal (D-CA).
Rep. Deb Haaland tweeted about her support of the bill, writing on Twitter, “I’ve made it a point to reduce my plastic use by carrying a reusable water bottle, my own coffee mug, etc. BUT we need big change to #BreakFreeFromPlastic,” despite numerous photographs of the representative showing her sipping single-use items, such as throw-away Starbucks coffee cups.