WHAT'S NEXT

Remove Pro-Plastic Bag Text from California Textbooks!
  1. Signatures
    30,699 out of 35,000
    Petitioning
    1. California EPA (+ 2 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • California EPA
      • California State Board of Education
      • California Dept. of Education, Curriculum, Learning, and Accountability Branch
  2. Created By
    Veronica Zaleha
    Santa Cruz, CA
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
How We Won

May 04, 2012

A California environmental curriculum influenced by the plastics industry -- including a section asking students to memorize the benefits of plastic bags -- will be rewritten due to public outcry, California Watch reported on May 4, 2012. 

Veronica Zaleha, a Santa Cruz high school teacher librarian, started her petition on Change.org after California Watch initially reported that the K-12 curriculum had been edited to include word-for-word suggestions from the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group for the plastics industry. The new curriculum no longer includes the section titled, “The Advantages of Plastic Shopping Bags" and has recent statistics on recycling.

Across the country, bans on plastic bags are gaining momentum because they make sense—in today's world, there is no need for a flimsy, fossil-fuel based, single-use bag. The waste is enormous and emphasis must be placed on investment in products that are made from sustainable materials that last.

The recent insertion of pro-plastic bag text into California's state curriculum by the American Chemistry Council (a lobbying arm of the chemical industry that makes plastic bags) is absolutely inexcusable. Industry lobbyists have no business editing state curricula, especially when the information encourages poor environmental practice and is disputed by factual evidence.

Tell the California state officials to remove this harmful and misleading information from California's curricula.

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Remove pro-plastic bag text inserted into California Curriculum

Greetings,

I am writing to express my strong disapproval of recent pro-plastic bag text inserted into California's State curriculum on behalf of the lobbying arm of the petrochemical industry.

Not only do industry lobbyists, such as the American Chemistry Council, have no business setting curriculum materials, but encouraging the use of plastic bags counteracts the policies and established facts found by many municipalities in California.

Across the country, bans on plastic bags are gaining momentum because they make sense—in today's world, there is no need for a flimsy, fossil-fuel based, single-use bag. The waste is enormous and emphasis must be placed on investment in products that are made from sustainable materials that last.

After years of dedicated work to revise the standards for California's public education, it seems indeed regrettable that the content of the current textbooks should be compromised due to self-interested pressure from this industry association. It doesn't have to be this way. The curriculum is still in testing phase and can be altered.

I respectfully ask that you take action to remove this example of industry influence from the state's curriculum.

I look forward to hearing of your swift action on this important matter.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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