Stand up to plastic bag pollution and save marine life with Save The Bay

Join together with Save The Bay, an organization working to protect the San Francisco Bay, in standing up to the plastics industry and taking action to keep the bay clean and protect marine life. In a recent press release Save The Bay announced "The Bay vs. the Bag", a campaign to bring an end to plastic bag pollution in California. The campaign will create legislation to require a 25 cent fee on paper and plastic bags in San Jose and other bay area cities.

Bay Area residents use 3.8 billion plastic bags per year and discard over one hundred plastic bags per
second, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board. It is estimated that about one million of these bags wind up in the Bay each year where they pollute the water, smother wetlands and entangle and kill animals, according to Save The Bay.

While the plastics industry threatens lawsuits if legislation is passed charging for plastic bags, Garbage Island, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a swirling vortex of trash (mostly plastic) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is believed to be the world's largest garbage dump - continues to grow, and is estimated to be twice the size of Texas.

Taxing plastic bags has been proven to be a quite successful solution to plastic bag pollution in other parts of the world. China has reduced it's plastic bag use by 66% since it's ban started, and a plastic bag ban in Ireland in 2002 has reduced usage by 90%, according to the WorldWatch Institute and BBC News.

Click here to find out more about The Bay vs. The Bag and sign a petition to eliminate plastic bags in California.