Californians use over 19 billion plastic grocery bags every year - about 550 bags per person. This translates into 150,000 tons of waste filling up our landfills and ending up on our beaches, creeks and roadsides as litter.  Taxpayers and local governments spend millions of dollars to clean-up this unsightly litter.  Cities and counties across California and the nation are taking action to prevent plastic bag pollution by banning disposable plastic shopping bags, and it’s time that Santa Barbara joins the growing effort to address this costly environmental problem.