Reuseable Bag Program
Give the Sack to Plastic Bags
Here's something that every one of us can do to help turn the tide on a flood that is polluting our oceans and waterways, killing alarming numbers of birds and sea creatures, and littering our highways and parklands.
We can break the plastic bag habit and switch to reusable shopping bags!
To help shoppers make the switch, Carpinteria Beautiful has so far given away
over 6,000 reusable shopping bags, asking only that the recipients remember to
use them each time they shop. To help with that task, we added "Remember
Me!" decals to affix to one's car window or refrigerator. CB's iconic
blue bag, sporting the Carpinteria flag logo, is now seen all over town -
and more will be coming soon.
This past spring (2011), we cheered when our local Albertsons voluntarily eliminated
all single-use bags from their store, an outstanding example of corporate responsibility
that we hope will spread to other markets.
We also support recent moves by our City Council to eliminate plastic bags on
a city-wide basis. This issue will next be on their agenda on October 10th,
offering an excellent opportunity for anyone who wishes to become involved.
Watch this space for future updates on the Council's action.
Why do we feel so strongly about the plastic bag issue?
The Numbers Tell the Story
- In California alone, over 600 plastic bags are used and discarded every second!
- Plastic bags do not biodegrade. TThey break up into tiny toxic bits that remain in the environment indefinitely.
- Hundreds of thousands of seabirds and sea mammals are dying from ingesting or becoming entangled in discarded plastic.
- Whole areas of the ocean have been found to now have more plastic bits than bio-mass (living matter).
- Plastic bags are made from petroleum, unnecessarily wasting huge amounts of this increasingly scarce resource.
- Plastic bags cost retailers millions of dollars each year, a cost passed on to the consumer.
- More millions in tax dollars are spent annually trying to clean up littered bags.
- Only 5% of plastic bags are recycled. Those that are put in the waste stream are choking our landfills.
Need we say more? Please, join us in giving plastic bags the sack; remember your reusable bag every time you shop!
Watch our video: "It's In the Bag!"
