Maddie, surrounded by reusable bags, dreams of a day when they are the norm.
One Bag at a Time For her Senior Four Point project, Maddie Williams ’19 would like to see plastic bags disappear. by Julie Reiff | photos by Cait Bourgault
“I'm concerned about the impact on humans that plastic bags have, but my drive really comes from my concern for the environment,” she explains. “I have been an animal lover since I was very young.” For a long time she wanted to be a veterinarian, then a wildlife rehabilitator. “I realized that a lot of the things that you come across in wildlife rehabilitation are because of human impact on the environment. And I don’t think that I would be able to stay in that field, seeing all of the systems in place by humans that are hurting wildlife and habitats.” So Maddie wondered what she could do.
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“I’ve already taken plastic out of my life,” she says. “I use glass jars and mason jars and glass Tupperware and paper wax-lined bags. For an 18-year-old, I do as much as I really feel I can.”
Then, at a bookstore in Vermont while looking at colleges, she came across a book about reducing single-use plastic in your community. “And I was like, ‘Bethel’s pretty small. What can I do in my community?’ So I flip it open, and the first one is a bag ban. And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s incredible. I’m going to set my sights on a bag ban.’” She talked to the town manager and asked about initiating some sort of ordinance in Bethel. Then she went to the National Resources Council of Maine [NRCM], and with their help, organized a screening of the documentary “Bag It” at the local movie theater, The Gem, in July. “I was definitely preaching to the choir, there. I’ll totally admit that,” she says. “But it was so amazing; I had 50-plus people show up to this event, which for an evening in Bethel is pretty extraordinary.”
