Letters: Fighting plastic pollution with reusable aluminum cups in Nassau County

Plastic waste has become ubiquitous — filling landfills, becoming litter and polluting oceans, waterways, soil, plants, animals and even the atmosphere. People use and discard so much plastic, scientists estimate that if our current plastic consumption rate continues, roughly 12,000 metric tons of plastic waste will be in landfills or the environment worldwide by 2050.

Research indicates that somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of plastic produced today is single use. That includes products such as packaging, cups, plates, utensils, bottles, straws, diapers and bags. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in the United States, 10 percent or less of the plastic produced is recycled.

So how do we solve the problem with plastic?

It starts by looking for alternatives. One of the best ways to reduce plastic waste is to bring, buy and use products designed for multiple uses. Also, look for products that are made from recycled materials or can easily be recycled—like aluminum.

Aluminum provides a good alternative to plastic. According to various estimates, somewhere between 35 and 50 percent of aluminum waste is recycled in the United States. Aluminum cups are more durable than plastic, may be made with recycled material and can be safely washed and reused.

Keep Nassau Beautiful is taking on the problem with plastic by launching the #ReFillNassauFL campaign. Central to the program is a reusable, refillable and recyclable aluminum cup that is available for purchase from our booth at local festivals or from participating partner businesses in Nassau County. To encourage use and reuse of the cups, we are seeking partnerships with local water utilities to provide hydration stations at events, where attendees can refill their cups free-of-charge with fresh, filtered water.

While proceeds from cup sales support the programs of Keep Nassau Beautiful, the goal of this effort is not a fundraiser. By demonstrating that alternatives to plastics exist, encouraging folks to bring their own and providing water stations where individuals can refill, we’re showing people ways to solve the problem with plastics.

Lynda Bell, Executive Director, Keep Nassau Beautiful

Veteran care still lacking

A Nov. 29 Florida Times-Union article reported on a survey about the needs of the military community in Northeast Florida. Readers may be surprised by the information, but those of us that have been working with veterans for years are not.

The lack of access to care and resources, specifically for mental health is all too common for veterans and is a long-fought battle for veteran advocates.

My organization, Concerned Veterans for America, has been working for years to find better ways for veterans to access the care they need and deserve. But one of the biggest barriers is the VA purposely working to keep veterans in the system and out of community care.

The VA MISSION Act created the Community Care Program, which allows veterans to seek care outside the VA if drive and wait times fall outside VA’s regulatory access standards. So far, veterans like the program, with VA Secretary Denis McDonough reporting an increase in community care usage.

But a FOIA request shows the VA is working to reduce the ability for veterans to get care in the community, manipulating wait times and driving veterans away from these options. This effort affects veterans not just in Northeast Florida, but across the nation. I think we’re seeing that in how veterans are reporting on the resources they are lacking.

We can save access to care through further reforms, ensuring veterans are seeing providers when and where they need it.

CVA is asking members of Congress to support the Guaranteeing Healthcare Access for Persons who Served Act (GHAPS ACT). This would make law the community care access standards and keep the VA from being able to manipulate wait times as they are now.

This survey should motivate all of us to call our members of Congress to action on more VA reforms.

Jimmie T. Smith, Florida Coalition Director, Concerned Veterans for America

Scott, Rubio right on same-sex marriage

I am writing to express my rebuttal to the Dec. 4 editorial, “Florida senators are out of step on same-sex marriage.”

While they may be out of step with the prevailing winds of culture, I submit that they are right on track with morality. The editorial quotes (and implies concurrence with) Rand Hoch, who states “The population of our country has grown to understand and accept (gay marriage) …” While that may be true, majority acceptance of an idea doesn’t necessarily make it right. Moral absolutes still exist, even though our culture seems increasingly insistent on moral relativism — “my truth and your truth.”

I believe I am called by God to love all people, including LGBTQ people, but heterosexual love and marriage are the standards for human behavior, as prescribed by God and endorsed as normative since creation. I think we depart from those standards at great personal and national peril. Even though it seems we are moving tragically towards turning our back on God, we are not yet a “secular nation,” as the editorial proclaims.

Our Pledge of Allegiance still calls us “one nation, under God” and our currency still says “In God We Trust.” In addition, churches that staunchly proclaim unchanging moral absolutes still flourish in this nation. So, while the editorial may reflect popular opinion, it is woefully misguided.

Michael Wallace, Ponte Vedra

Senators support religious freedom

A Dec. 10 letter to the editor stated disappointment that Rick Scott and Marco Rubio voted against the bill that "protects same sex marriages."

To me, what this bill really does is take away some of the religious freedoms on which America was founded, especially from ministries like Christian orphanages or adoption and foster care agencies. If they follow their religious views on marriage between one man and one woman, they could face litigation, liability risk or loss of tax-exempt status.

It's also my feeling that this could open the door to polygamous marriages.

I am proud that we have some congressmen who will stand up for their beliefs, even when they are not popular. It was men like this that came to America for religious freedom.

Sonja Harpe, Jacksonville

More to Medicare cuts

In his Dec. 3 letter, Doug Diamond is concerned about Medicare’s future, as am I, but more by long-standing Republican animus.

I was a primary care physician in Boston for 39 years and intimately witnessed the (de)evolution of medical care to the “business of medicine.” I earned a decent (but lower-end) salary relative to my specialist colleagues. My boss and primary care leaders were irked by my persistent complaining about “the war on primary care.” Yet they did nothing.

Though Medicare reimbursed less, it was substantially less burdensome to work with compared to commercial insurance.

Medicare Summary notices may leave you breathless at the disparity between the separate charges for the facility providing the service and for the interpreting physician, as well as Medicare’s reimbursement. However, charges are inflated to cover the difference. Be happy you're not paying list price.

Medicare reimbursement rates are determined by a committee of economists and doctors overly represented by surgeons and specialists preferentially valuing their skill sets. Medicare determines annual payment reductions but – most importantly — Congress can (and often does) override them.

Physicians in Florida (with its lower cost of living) do well salary-wise, better than national averages. Primary care physicians here annually average $175,000, family practitioners $205,000, gastroenterologists $383,000, and radiologists $420,000. Our health care institutions are financially sound.

Michael Miller, M.D., Ponte Vedra Beach

DCPS headed backwards?

At the Dec. 6 school board meeting, there were three main issues on the agenda.

First, whether to adopt a new sex-ed curriculum or not; the district’s “shadow banning” of books; and finally, how (and why) the district ended its 20-plus year relationship with JASMYN, an organization dedicated to serving LGBTQ children. It's 2022, but the district's recent actions have made me think they are trying to drag us back to 1952.

Ultimately, the district decided to restart sex education next semester. While this was the right decision, it means many students won't receive sex education this year. As for the banning of books -- the district can say they are under review, but if it takes forever, the effect is the same and the severed relationship with JASMYN remains the same.

Don't we deserve a forward-thinking superintendent and school board rather than one that would instead partner with bigots and book banners? I know I would. I would also like leadership that stands up for teachers, as well as our most vulnerable children, though that seems like an impossible ask.

As a district teacher for 21 years, I have never seen such backward and failed leadership. And if the conversations in the teacher's lounge and online are any indication, I am far from alone.

Chris Guerrieri, Jacksonville

Curry not moving city forward

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry is undermining democracy with a proposal that requires elected city officials to resign their current position to run for another elected office.

Curry should be embarrassed that this is a top priority during his final months as mayor. He has around six months to go before being term-limited.

What has he to show for his time as mayor? The JEA debacle, support for every proposed tax increase, attempts to stop citizens from voting for whomever they want and a city budget increase of more than 45 percent. Even crime — Curry’s top priority when he first ran for mayor back in 2015 — has gone up since he was elected.

Basically, Jacksonville has not moved forward under Curry, thanks to his lack of leadership.

Jacksonville’s citizens are looking for someone who can actually lead and represent all of the people of Duval County — not the select few who Curry has spent too long appeasing. We deserve better.

Matt Schellenberg, former city council member

Atlantic Beach can do better on homeless

I can understand Atlantic Beach’s frustration with its homeless problem, as reported on Nov. 29. But passing a new ordinance that bans sleeping or loitering in public is not the solution.

As part of this ordinance, they will provide violators with a list of shelters and community resources, as well as transportation, if necessary. Violators of the ordinance will be given the option to move on but will be arrested, if they refuse.

There are a few issues with this approach. Those who choose to move on will end up becoming another community’s problem, while those who choose not to move can end up in jail.

Too often homelessness is treated as a police problem rather than a social one. Locking up individuals simply for being homeless is not only inhumane, but expensive. We can do better than that.

Stan Grenn, Jacksonville 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Nassau County aims to reduce plastic pollution with reusable cups