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If you go to the hospital with a sharp pain in your left shoulder — a well-known indicator of a heart attack — any doctor worth her salt will start by investigating the health of your heart, not just your shoulder. Similarly, when it comes to addressing the plastics crisis, it’s time we think like…

This week, members of Michigan’s lame duck legislature introduced a bill that could repeal Michigan’s 40-year-old bottle deposit law. If passed, the bill would undermine a successful bottling collection program that has recovered an average of 96% of bottles sold. What’s a container deposit? Container deposits are a system designed to reduce pollution by incentivizing the…

Story of Stuff partner FLOW has announced model legislation to protect Michigan’s public waters from unauthorized privatization.  Earlier this year, we released A Tale of Two Cities, a short documentary telling the story of Michigan’s battle for the public control of water. We explored the threat of privatization through the eyes of local activists in…

The effort to eliminate plastic straws has recently become a darling among ocean plastic advocates, even permeating pop culture and the broader public consciousness. Everywhere in social media, images of plastic straws in the environment or corrupting wildlife are dominating Facebook and Instagram feeds, reaching far beyond the silos of the traditional stakeholder groups concerned…

Strawberry Creek, Wildlife Remain at Risk from Commercial Exploitation SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Federal officials and conservation groups reached an agreement today that will finally end Nestlé Corp.’s ability to rely on a permit that expired 30 years ago to siphon water from the San Bernardino National Forest for its massive bottled-water operation. The company’s…

Last month, Nestlé Waters walked away from a bottling plant proposal in Centre County, Pennsylvania. The world’s largest water bottler was looking at constructing a new plant and well that would have taken 150 million gallons a year from groundwater sources in the Spring Creek watershed. Nestlé would have more than doubled the amount of…

On the four-year anniversary of the fateful day when city officials switched Flint, Michigan’s water source to the toxic Flint River, Representatives Keith Ellison and Ro Khanna introduced a crucial piece of water justice legislation: The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act.1 At a time when the White House has formally suspended a…

A new study, commissioned by The Story of Stuff Project, has found widespread plastic microfiber contamination in commercial bottled water. In total, 19 different bottled water brands were analyzed for microparticle contamination by Abigail Barrows of Ocean Analytics. According to the study, Boxed Water, Fiji, Ozarka, and Evian had the highest levels of plastic microfiber…

Last year, Cascade Locks, a small town in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, passed a county-wide ballot measure that stopped Nestlé from building a new water bottling plant and trucking the town’s precious resource away for profit. This tremendous victory against the multinational corporation galvanized the region and inspired other towns to stand up for their…