(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Dear Editor,

As the Times reported a couple years ago (“The Plastic Bag Ban Begins” Sept. 7, 2016), Somerville has taken an admirable step in banning plastic bags.

As a society and a state, we need to go further in our reduction of single use plastic – particularly polystyrene, one of the most harmful forms of plastic pollution. Our waste is killing our wildlife. Our economy encourages us to make, use and toss at the greatest possible speed.

Often, we don’t think twice about getting our coffee to-go in a foam cup, or food in a foam takeout container. Currently, 70 million plastic foam cups are estimated to be disposed by Americans every day. Of these, about one-third end up in waterways: rivers, lakes and especially oceans.

This polystyrene foam doesn’t degrade; polystyrene microplastics in our oceans and waterways are killing wildlife in scores and finding their way into our drinking water and even seafood. To protect our wildlife and our waterways we need to dramatically reduce our plastic waste and we can start by banning foam cups and takeout containers here in Massachusetts.

Jake Taber
Somerville