Tell Congress to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags and Save the Oceans

Tell Congress to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags and Save the Oceans

The Issue

 

You've probably heard of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a Texas-sized heap of non-biodegradable waste stewing in the deepest blue body on Earth.  What are the consequences of this accumulation of junk that includes plastic bottles, bags, toys, packaging, etc?

So far, we’ve worked our way up to a 6:1 ratio of “plastic sea death” to valuable sea life.  And we're now literally feasting on our own waste by eating fish that have eaten other fish that have all been bathing in toxic seawater soup, whipped up with a dash of bisphenol-A (BPA) and a pinch of PS oligomer.  Ocean debris worldwide kills at least 1 million sea birds and 100,000 mammals each year, and the giant oceanic trash vortex continues to grow every day.

China and India have already implemented successful plastic bag bans, saving them millions of pounds of waste and barrels of oil every year.  Cities across the Western world have imposed taxes on plastic bags, and a few US cities have banned them. But this is not nearly enough action!

By signing this petition., you are asking the federal government to take action:

1. To outlaw the distribution of the thinnest single-use plastic bags.

2. To implement a federal tax on all plastic bags (to cover the externality of the environmental damage done by the production and disposal of each one).

If other countries are doing this already, why aren’t we?  Please help save the oceans (and the human race) before it's too late!

 

avatar of the starter
Maya AlbanesePetition StarterAdvocate of social & environmental change in modern-day American capitalism, materialism, and technology. I believe that we all learn more in the unorthodox establishments, the roads less traveled, and in arguments rather than conversations. I'm an independent woman in my mid-twenties, based in San Francisco, but always ready to experience new places, people, and things. My first great passion is experiencing the history, culture, and ideas of different societies through extended travel. My second passion, to which I’ve dedicated my career, is discussing the critical importance of the natural environment with which our species has been so blessed. I routinely embark on spontaneous adventures, casting aside material comforts and the security of convention to challenge myself, and hopefully inspire others to do the same.
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This petition had 246 supporters

The Issue

 

You've probably heard of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a Texas-sized heap of non-biodegradable waste stewing in the deepest blue body on Earth.  What are the consequences of this accumulation of junk that includes plastic bottles, bags, toys, packaging, etc?

So far, we’ve worked our way up to a 6:1 ratio of “plastic sea death” to valuable sea life.  And we're now literally feasting on our own waste by eating fish that have eaten other fish that have all been bathing in toxic seawater soup, whipped up with a dash of bisphenol-A (BPA) and a pinch of PS oligomer.  Ocean debris worldwide kills at least 1 million sea birds and 100,000 mammals each year, and the giant oceanic trash vortex continues to grow every day.

China and India have already implemented successful plastic bag bans, saving them millions of pounds of waste and barrels of oil every year.  Cities across the Western world have imposed taxes on plastic bags, and a few US cities have banned them. But this is not nearly enough action!

By signing this petition., you are asking the federal government to take action:

1. To outlaw the distribution of the thinnest single-use plastic bags.

2. To implement a federal tax on all plastic bags (to cover the externality of the environmental damage done by the production and disposal of each one).

If other countries are doing this already, why aren’t we?  Please help save the oceans (and the human race) before it's too late!

 

avatar of the starter
Maya AlbanesePetition StarterAdvocate of social & environmental change in modern-day American capitalism, materialism, and technology. I believe that we all learn more in the unorthodox establishments, the roads less traveled, and in arguments rather than conversations. I'm an independent woman in my mid-twenties, based in San Francisco, but always ready to experience new places, people, and things. My first great passion is experiencing the history, culture, and ideas of different societies through extended travel. My second passion, to which I’ve dedicated my career, is discussing the critical importance of the natural environment with which our species has been so blessed. I routinely embark on spontaneous adventures, casting aside material comforts and the security of convention to challenge myself, and hopefully inspire others to do the same.
Media inquiries

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Petition created on March 28, 2011