I don't normally write petitions, but single use shopping bags is something that I deeply care about because they are destroying our food and water supply, our wildlife and our oceans.  Stopping their use won't happen without the support of people like you. 

Plastic shopping bags are a big problem.  In Pennsylvania alone, 4.75 billion plastic bags are used and then tossed away, ending up in oceans and landfills where they remain for up to 1,000 years.  Their impact is often felt as the plastic becomes entangled around turtles, fish, seal and other wildlife's necks or intestines.  They then struggle to survive, but sadly, most do not.

Not only do plastic bags create devastation in our oceans, but as the bags slowly degrade, environmental micro toxins are released, contaminating the water supply and various fish species--our drinking and food supply.  The production alone of these bags releases 300 million pounds of toxic waste every year.

Recycling these plastic bags is not an option either; the EPA estimates that more 93 billion bags go unrecycled, simply tossed away, back into our oceans and streets.

Although states like New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, and Delaware, as well as the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, have banned plastic bags, Pennsylvania has not as a whole been able to enact a permanent plastic bag ban. 

For 2 million Pennsylvanians, eliminating plastic bags would clean up the water and food supply, give us cleaner air, and eliminate 8 million pounds of waste every year.  But the economy would also get a boost.  Reusable bag manufacturers would have an uptick in business, leading to increased employment opportunities. Eliminating plastic bags would also reduce the cost of goods because stores have to factor in the cost of disposable bags into their prices, which they pass onto us.

We must demand from our representatives that they put aside politics and enact legislation that protects us, the environment, and animals.  We CAN do this!

Thank you for reading this petition.  Please sign and share it so we can pass it along to our PA representative and senator!

We CAN save this planet!  We need to start right here in Pennsylvania!

Denise