Sustainable Practices

Sustainable Practices: Overview

Sustainable Practices has been an advocate for the environment and Cape Cod is both our home and our focus. In 2019 we established the Cape Plastic Bottle Ban as an educational and citizen advocacy initiative focused on raising awareness of the environmental and human impact of single-use plastic bottle consumption. We facilitated the adoption of the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban in all 15 Cape towns and have championed a Commercial Single-use PlastiBan more details are on our Bottle Ban page.

Our Community Engagement

Recent Press

In 2020, we initiated the Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban (Commercial Bottle Ban). The Commercial Bottle Ban eliminates the sale of non-carbonated, non-flavored water in single-use plastic bottles of less than 1 gallon in size within the jurisdictional area of a town. Due to COVID-19, efforts in some towns were postponed. In spite of the challenge, 8 towns have the Commercial Bottle Ban in effect: Brewster, Chatham, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Orleans, Provincetown, and Wellfleet.

Coverage of our Bottle Ban activities can be found on our News page.

Our Activities

As a community-based volunteer led and staffed organization on Cape Cod, we are focused on promoting local stewardship of our environment and the long-term sustainability of the Cape. We organize community-building and educational events on the values and benefits of conscious consumption for long-term sustainability.

We are currently engaged in three ongoing community initiatives:

The Cape Plastic Bottle Ban campaign, a grassroots effort to promote understanding and civic engagement with respect to the adverse consequences of plastic consumption on both human and environmental health. The Ban initiative was announced in March 2018 and has been covered by multiple news outlets.
Sustainable Practices Sustainability Film Series, is a documentary screening series started in the fall of 2017. Films are screened at the Chatham Orpheum Theater the first Saturday of each month (September through June) at 9:30 am . 2022-2023 is our sixth season! Details on upcoming films can be found on our Film Series page.
Sustainable Practices, a podcast and radio show, is hosted by WOMR and airs the second and fourth Monday of every month at 12:30 pm. . Podcasts are available for listening on-demand under Events on on the WOMR website.

As part of our routine civic engagement we maintain four Adopt-A-Highway sites and one Adopt-A-Visibility site on highway 6 on Cape Cod. Our areas are cleared of and patrolled for debris by volunteers on a monthly basis between April and November. Our sites are located between exits 10 and 12 on both the eastbound and westbound lanes of the highway and include the Eastham Rotary, where highway 6A and 6 merge.

Our Initiatives

Cape Plastic Bottle Ban

Sustainable Practices Sustainability Film Series

The Cape Plastic Bottle Ban is an educational and citizen advocacy initiative focused on raising awareness of the environmental and human impact of single-use plastic bottle consumption. In 2019, we initiated the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban, which focused on eliminating non-emergency single-use plastic bottle purchase by town governments and sale of beverages in single-use plastic containers on town property across all towns in Barnstable County, Cape Cod. In 2020, we started the Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban campaign, which prohibits retail sale of single-use plastic bottled water (non-carbonated, non-flavored). As of February 2023, all 15 Cape towns have adopted the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban and the Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban is in effect in 8.

Details on the Bottle Ban effort, including upcoming activities can be found on the Bottle Ban page.

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Sustainable Practices Sustainability Film Series

The Sustainability Film Series is in its seventh season this fall! Our next film is ithika, which addresses the issues surrounding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Tickets are available for this film (and all others in our series) at the Chatham Orpheum!

Tickets can be purchased at the Orpheum Theater box office on online. See our Film

Tickets can be purchased at the Orpheum Theater box office on online. See our Film Series page for more information.

Our films support our outreach and educational efforts.

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Sustainable Practices

Sustainable Practices Sustainability Film Series

Sustainable Practices

Sustainable Practices is our namesake radio show. Our show airs the second and fourth Monday of every month at 12:30 pm on WOMR. Each episode highlights an aspect of environmental sustainability that impacts us locally but also has global implications.

We cover a range of topics from municipal water quality to recycling with a focus on th

We cover a range of topics from municipal water quality to recycling with a focus on the importance of local action in protecting our commons.

Our archived podcasts are available on WOMR and are accessible on our Podcasts page.

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Join the Cape Plastic Bottle Ban