Elected officials are mandated by their representatives to provide safe, healthy, and pleasant communities. On a local level, the most visible manifestation is the presence and work of law enforcement or public health campaigns.
While plastic pollution is a global crisis, Baltimore’s city hall is addressing the local harmful effects of plastic waste by suing the companies that make and sell products packaged in plastic.
Baltimore’s key argument is that these companies, which include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Frito-Lay, among others, is that these firms create a public nuance by selling products that they know will cause environmental harm when 95% of them end up in the environment or are incinerated.