Recycling Committee to Sponsor Lecture on 'Loving Less Plastic' on July 10

The Melrose Recycling Committee (MRC) announces that it will sponsor a talk and discussion this summer addressing opportunities for people and organizations to reduce the volume of plastic products they use in their households and business operations. The event will take place at the Milano Senior Center on July 10 at 7 p.m.

The featured speaker for the July 10 event will be Cambridge-based artist Freedom Baird, who was a contributor to MRC’s “Less Plastic is Fantastic” speaker series in 2017. During the July 10 event, Ms. Baird will once again address the issue of plastic waste in a talk titled “Loving Less Plastic.”

The event comes at a time when increased attention is being paid to the problems of plastic waste in the environment, and especially our oceans, where plastics break down into by-products that are showing up in the food chain, with yet-to-be-determined but potentially harmful health impacts. Plastic wastes generated by Americans—notably packaging and single-use items like water bottles—are also finding their way to third world countries, where they are often burned in open, uncontrolled settings and cause significant air pollution. Canada and the European Union have recently taken major steps to limit or ban the production of single-use plastic products.

“With this talk and discussion we’ll take a look at how organizations and institutions can embrace sustainability in every aspect of their operations, consider ways to love less plastic in our day-to-day lives, and take a look at some present-day artists who are working with themes of plastic, consumerism, and sustainability,” says Ms. Baird.

"Beyond the discussion of recycling or reusing, we can look creatively at reducing petroleum-based plastic and consider the impact of the materials we use in our daily lives,” says Robin Snyder-Drummond, the MRC volunteer who is organizing the event. “We're glad Freedom Baird will return; the 2017 talk was very well received, and we still have discussions about it with Melrosians."

A practicing artist with training in drawing, sculpture, metal-smithing, and other areas, Ms. Baird also serves as a consultant to the faculty of Tufts University in Somerville, specializing in the area of educational technologies. She has served as a consultant to and instructor for several other organizations, such as the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston’s Children’s Hospital, and Cambridge Community Television. In 2016, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in interdisciplinary art from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

The Milano Senior Center is located at 201 West Foster Street in Melrose.