A plastic bag is caught in the fragile Coastal Sage Scrub environment in Southern California.

Let's stop the plastic bag waste!

Target:

Retailers giving away "free plastic bags"

Sponsored by:

Torrey Trust, President, Re-Use Revolution

While we, the undersigned, appreciate the generosity of your store for offering free plastic bags for customers to carry their products home with, plastic waste has become an alarming environmental and monetary problem.
There are currently 46,000 pieces of plastic in one square mile of ocean. Only 1% of the 14 billion plastic bags used in the U.S. each year are recycled. These "free" plastic bags end up costing taxpayers between 17 and 20 cents each to pay for costs associated with cleaning up the plastic bag litter and separating them from landfills each year. (In San Francisco alone, City officials estimate that they spend $8.5 million annually to deal with plastic bag litter).
We are asking that you either place a TAX on the plastic bags given away in your store or BAN them. Also, please offer cheap, reusable bags as an alternative. The current plastic bag tax in Ireland prevents 1 billion plastic bags from being passed out every year, while also generating $15 million from the tax to use for cleanup.
It will take our government too long to implement a plastic bag tax or ban, therefore, we are asking that your store will take the initiative on your own. It's time to put a stop to plastic waste and help out our environment. Please consider the consequences of the "free plastic bags" and the demand from your customers which have signed this petition.
Thank you for your time.If you have any further questions, please visit the Re-Use Revolution Site for more facts: http://www.sdsurfeco.com/reuserev

While we appreciate the generosity of your store for offering free plastic bags for customers to carry their products home with, plastic waste has become an alarming environmental and monetary problem.
There are currently 46,000 pieces of plastic in one square mile of ocean. Only 1% of the 14 billion plastic bags used in the U.S. each year are recycled. These "free" plastic bags end up costing taxpayers between 17 and 20 cents each to pay for costs associated with cleaning up the plastic bag litter and separating them from landfills each year. (In San Francisco alone, City officials estimate that they spend $8.5 million annually to deal with plastic bag litter).
We are asking that you either place a TAX on the plastic bags given away in your store or BAN them. Also, please offer cheap, reusable bags as an alternative. The current plastic bag tax in Ireland prevents 1 billion plastic bags from being passed out every year, while also generating $15 million from the tax to use for cleanup.
It will take our government too long to implement a plastic bag tax or ban, therefore, we are asking that your store will take the initiative on your own. It's time to put a stop to plastic waste and help out our environment. Please consider the consequences of the "free plastic bags" and the demand from your customers which have signed this petition.
Thank you for your time.If you have any further questions, please visit the Re-Use Revolution Site for more facts: http://www.sdsurfeco.com/reuserev

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We signed the "Let's stop the plastic bag waste! " petition!

# 9:

12:19 am PDT, Jun 18, Chng Jing Ying, Singapore
it contributes to global warming thus all living things are affected!!!!

- save money - save the earth - use reusable bags

# 8:

3:17 pm PDT, Mar 13, Philippe Ducreux, France

# 7:

2:22 pm PST, Mar 6, Darren Tortoise Protection, United Kingdom

# 6:

8:06 pm PST, Mar 4, Elaine Secondo, Connecticut

# 5:

10:30 am PST, Jan 25, Heather Feinberg, Massachusetts
my cats crawl in them and can suffocate, i see them everywhere on the streets of boston, in the water... its disgusting. there is no need for them!

buy a $1 canvas bag that will last you years, paper bags that can decompose... humans need to stop thinking only of humans but of the rest of the planet too!!!! we're destroying our home!

# 4:

10:54 am PST, Dec 24, Becky Voaklander, California

# 3:

3:36 pm PST, Dec 23, Roger Stafford, United Kingdom
Plastic is a pollutant and people should be made to think before taking more disposable plastic home to throw away after a single use.

# 2:

1:21 am PST, Dec 23, Mitchelle Greenlee, California
My family and I participate in a lot of outdoor activities and it never ceases to amaze me how many plastic bags we find every where we go. I find it particularly disheartening when I find bags right outside of stores where seemingly customers were given more bags than were needed and they were discarded right outside the store proving to be a wast to the customer and the vendor.

I believe providing reusable bags at a reasonable cost also provides a financial benefit to the store. For example, I have multiple reusable bags to Target and Ralphs in both of my cars. Now when I need something I typically only go to these stores because that is where I have bags to thereby increasing my customer loyalty. These bags only cost me $1.50 each. Another example would be to look at stores like Costco and Food 4 Less. There is no doubt that these stores have withstood the test of time and have thrived, yet neither of these stores provides bags. They rely upon consumers to use boxes that they provide from their delivery companies to carry out their belongings. So if providing bags does not seem like a financial benefit you can look to these other companies as examples.

# 1:

8:15 am PST, Dec 20, Torrey Trust, California
Plastic waste is killing 100,000 marine animals every year. It's time to help those that can't speak for themselves. It's time to stop the ignorant waste of the world!

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