Friday, May 28, 2010

Fight plastic pollution by supporting AB 1998!

Heal the Bay is sponsoring legislation this year that would significantly reduce plastic bag litter in our communities, on our beaches and in our oceans. With your help, California could be the first state in the country to adopt an aggressive policy to ban plastic carryout bags an large grocery stores, pharmacies and conveniences stores. Your immediate support is needed in helping to pass Assembly Bill 1998. Plastic pollution costs California taxpayers millions of dollars to clean-up, blights communities and threatens wildlife.

Your voice can make an incredible impact. Please help Heal the Bay by making a quick phone call to your District’s Assemblymember with the following message: “I am a member of your district and urge you to support AB 1998, the plastic bag ban bill.”

To find your Assemblymember, click here on the following link and enter your 5 digit zip code: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

The 2 minutes you take to call could help protect our environment for generations to come!

You can also send a letter to Assemblymember Brownley expressing your support for AB 1998 by clicking here:
http://www.healthebay.org/actionalerts/ab1998/sendletter.asp

San Francisco, Malibu, Fairfax, and Palo Alto have banned plastic bags and at least 20 more cities in California are considering bans. AB 1998 will create one uniform policy for addressing all types of single-use bags to encourage consumers to use reusable bags, the most sustainable alternative.

If passed, AB 1998 would:

Ban single-use plastic bags at supermarkets, convenience stores and large retail establishments with pharmacies. The ban would not apply to bags used to carry bulk items, produce or raw meat to the checkout.
Limit the distribution of paper bags at these stores to encourage consumers to use reusable bags.
Require reusable bags to be available for purchase at these stores instead of using single-use carryout bags.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just sent the letter by clicking the link above. It was so easy (^_^)d!!
I simply can't believe that we've been talking about this over a decade yet so little has been done. I personally think that each supermarket should charge at least $1/ plastic bags or give some $$back to the customers who brought their own eco-bags-----then people would stop using those single-use plastic bags at supermarkets in no time!!!!

Jui

Dance 4 Oceans said...

Thank you so much for your prompt action!!

The reason that our cities (Los Angeles, for instance) have not been able to ban the plastic bags is because the cities are required to show Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to show that banning plastic bags would not have a detrimental impact. If the results of banning plastic bags could demand more paper bags and create more impact on green house emission, the proposal would fail. Plus, these reports cost hundreds of thousands dollars.

Now, our California state has started to move forward and, the bill has just passed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee and will go to the full Assembly on this Thursday.
We have less than a week. Your urgent letter is a big help!

akiko kanna jones

Slonek Air Conditioning said...

This is great awareness.All of us have to work together to clean the world off the pollution on land,in air and in the water bodies.

Dance 4 Oceans said...

AB 1998 passed out Assembly. This bill will next be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Please send a support letter for AB 1998 to keep the bag ban moving!
http://www.cawrecycles.org/issues/current_legislation/ab1998_10

Dance 4 Oceans said...
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Dance 4 Oceans said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dance 4 Oceans said...

AB 1998 passed out of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee with a 5-2 vote! The bill will be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Write a letter in support of AB 1998 and keep the bag ban moving!

http://www.cawrecycles.org/issues/current_legislation/ab1998_10