Our lives are inundated with toxic chemicals and climate-changing gases that cause illness in humans, death to animals and fish, and lead to an unsustainable and dark future. So much about our environment is out of our control, but I suggest focusing on three items that, if eliminated, can make our lives and surroundings healthier: single-use plastics, gas-powered leaf blowers, and pesticides and herbicides.

Plastic is made by fossil fuel companies using petroleum and is mostly a byproduct of fracked gas. Plastics manufacturers also use thousands of unregulated chemical additives, which leach out during and after use. Almost half of the 450 million tons of plastic produced each year is used once, then thrown away. Plastic doesn’t break down — it breaks up into microplastics, now found in all bodies of water and living creatures. Studies consistently show that plastic exposure damages health at all stages of life and across all body systems. Plastic products also contain PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down, but basically, all plastic is “forever.”

Even though less than 10% of plastic is recycled, plastic recycling is also a myth. The process, called pyrolysis, releases more toxins and yet most of the plastic things we buy are made up of so many different types of plastic that they can’t be melted together. Thirty percent of Philadelphia’s trash, most of it plastic, is burned in Chester every day, releasing microplastics and toxic gases into the air. Children in Chester have four times the national asthma rate and this facility is the largest incinerator in the United States.

Our challenge? Reduce our use of single-use plastic. Tell grocery managers you want more products without plastic packaging. Use bulk food departments in stores that have them, using your own containers. Reuse your glass containers. Weavers Way Co-op has a good bulk department and returnable containers, and a jar library of used, dishwasher-cleaned jars. ECHO Systems is a company that provides reusable ware for businesses and events. Perennial Refill Hub is a store in Mt. Airy where you can buy liquid detergents and cleaners and shampoo in new or reused glass jars. MOM’s Organic Market and Whole Foods also have bulk departments.

I’ve worked with groups to get nearby communities to ban single-use plastic bags, but it’s time to go further. New Jersey just passed a statewide “Skip the Stuff” campaign — plastic forks, spoons and straws on request only — that has been a boon to the environment and business owners alike. It’s time for Philly to enact one or make plastic utensils by request only, as well as a complete ban on Styrofoam. Talk to your councilperson or township supervisor. For more information and help starting a campaign, look at the websites for Beyond Plastics, Penn Environment, Reduce Plastics PA, and the Public Interest Research Group. All offer organizing information packets for public campaigns.

Electric leaf blowers make gas-powered blowers obsolete. Gas-powered ones use the most toxic fuel, a mixture of gas and oil. The resulting pollution and particulates primarily affect the workers using them. The communities where they are used are also more polluted. Also, the sound of gas leaf blowers is above 65 decibels, capable of causing hearing damage to anyone close by. And due to their single-stroke engines, they produce far more climate-changing gases than cars.

Lower Merion and Narberth have passed bans, as have some states. Last year, an ordinance was introduced in Philadelphia City Council but support was lacking. Philadelphia plans to plant thousands of new trees, but if gas-powered leaf blowers are used to clean up, there will be more negative effects on our communities. If you use a landscaping service, ask them to make the switch. Quiet Clean Philly has a great website. Contact your councilperson, the mayor’s office or township supervisor and tell them to protect workers and the community’s health by creating or reintroducing the gas-powered leaf blower phaseout bill.

Chestnut Hill is known as the garden district of Philadelphia. Walking around our neighborhood, it’s easy to see why: fragrant flower beds, leafy shrubs and heritage trees. If we can be the garden district we can also be an environmentally friendly sustainable district to insects, birds, wildlife, dogs, water creatures and humans, by halting the use of poisonous herbicides and pesticides, many derived from petrochemicals. These unnecessary chemicals destroy the environment, create toxic runoff that poisons the Wissahickon, and kill insects that both pollinate and become food for other creatures up the food chain. They are also poisonous to pets, birds that run on the grass, and, of course, the children who play there. Killing weeds by applying herbicides is easy, but at what cost? Organic nontoxic solutions allow all life to flourish. If you use a landscaping company, ask them to use nontoxic solutions. The group Beyond Pesticides has more information.

All of us must do better; everything is at stake.

Richard Metz is a Chestnut Hill artist, environmentalist and writer.