Happy Plastic Free July! In this week’s corral, we have rounded up articles on new recycling laws and bans, a study reporting the effectiveness of plastic bag policies, risks of living near microplastic-polluted coastal waters, and Chile’s latest plan to battle the ravages of fast fashion waste.

Where new recycling laws are taking effect in July – Waste Dive, June 30, 2025

Several states, including Virginia, have recently enacted packaging policies that are taking effect this month. As we noted last week, the first phase of Virginia’s expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam ban starts this week, affecting food establishments with more than 20 locations in the Commonwealth. Likewise, Delaware is also implementing its 2023 foam ban. Elsewhere, New Hampshire starts requiring that lithium-ion batteries be disposed of at specific drop-off locations; large Illinois hotels will no longer be permitted to provide personal care products in single-use plastic bottles; Oregon’s packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) law takes effect; and Minnesota and Colorado also move ahead in implementing their EPR laws.

Leaf it to electric: Gas blowers get the boot July 1 in Montgomery County – Fox5 Washington DC, June 25, 2025

This week, it will no longer be legal to use a gas-powered leaf blower in Montgomery County, MD–where it has already been illegal to sell them since August 2024. The use ban was passed in 2023 by the County Council, but did not go into effect until this year. At the same time, the County will begin offering up to $1,500 in rebates for professional landscapers to help ease the transition. A councilmember has introduced an exemption bill for professional landscapers, citing high costs of electric blowers, but that will not be heard until July 15th. The use ban comes with a $500 fine for first-time offenders and up to $750 for repeated offenses. However, the County plans to focus on education before turning to strict enforcement.

Plastic shopping bag policies are actually working, a new study suggests – CNN, June 19, 2025

CNN reports on findings from a recent study published in the journal Science that show that jurisdictions with plastic bag policies see significantly fewer plastic bags as a share of total littered items in shoreline areas, compared to areas without policies (although sadly, the overall number of plastic bags increased everywhere during the study period). Statewide policies are the most effective, and all kinds of policies can be effective, whether fees, bans, or partial bans. The study covered the period from 2017 to 2023 and looked at hundreds of local and state policies across the United States, combined with citizen science data from more than 45,000 cleanups.

Highly microplastic-polluted US coastal waters linked to serious health risks, study finds – WCBV5.com/CNN, June 19, 2025

A new study from the Journal of the American Heart Association found that people who live in coastal communities where the ocean water is heavily polluted by microplastics have a significantly higher incidence of type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, and stroke compared to people living in less polluted areas. Microplastics have been found in many different human body tissues and their negative health impacts are yet to be fully understood, but mounting evidence suggests serious health risks. This study specifically considered the incidence of heart and metabolism-related diseases. Sure enough, the risks are higher where there is more microplastic in the environment.

Chile targets fast fashion waste with landmark desert cleanup plan – The Guardian, June 26, 2025

In Chile’s Atacama desert, enormous amounts of unwanted secondhand clothing wind up dumped or burned. As part of the global fast fashion system, the country imports 123,000 metric tons of used clothing every year – clothes for which dealers and donation centers in North America can’t find customers. After Chilean merchants and workers pick through the imported bales, they sell what they can and dump the rest. This has become a huge environmental problem in the dry yet delicate ecosystem of the Atacama desert, and a blight on the communities situated there. Recently, the Chilean environment ministry named textiles as a “priority category” to add to its extended producer responsibility (EPR) law. This move will make it the responsibility of clothing importers to report and account for all of the used clothing arriving in Chile, and ultimately to deal with their recycling and disposal. Chile is the world’s fourth largest importer of secondhand clothing.