Coalition to promote reusable shopping bags
In a continuing effort to get local residents to bring reusable bags to the grocery store, a coalition of community groups and the city of Santa Barbara is launching a new awareness campaign under the moniker of “Where’s Your Bag?”
The strategy largely involves distributing signs to remind shoppers to bring their own bags while shopping — from placards in stores and parking lots to window decals for vehicles.
“Plastic bags are an easy thing to live without and it’s something everyone can get on board with,” said Kathi King, one of the leading coordinators of the awareness effort.
King started pushing for a ban on plastic bags and Styrofoam takeout containers several years ago, and ended up securing approval from the city to form a partnership aimed at educating the public about the ill effects of single-use bags.
With 19 billion plastic bags being used annually in California — and nearly a trillion worldwide — King said the petroleum-based sacks are not only an eyesore as litter, but have a serious impact on the environment.
“They really become unintentional litter so easily, because they are so light,” she said, adding that plastic bags have added tons of waste to a massive gyre of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean.
Marine creatures often mistake the floating bags for food and end up choking, while small bits of broken-down plastic wind up in fish that are eaten by humans.
While plastic bags often garner criticism for their effects on the environment after being used, King noted that paper bags are even worse for the environment during the production stage. She is hopeful that government agencies will start moving toward a ban on all single-use bags.
“I think we need to outlaw paper bags as well, and get people to bring their own bags,” she said, adding later, “The more we can get people to do it voluntarily, the easier it will be to ease into legislation.”
The “Where’s Your Bag” campaign includes training workers at participating stores to encourage the use of reusable bags, in addition to handing out several thousand bags.
King said remembering to bring reusable bags to the store is simply a matter of making it a habit.
“Half the people we surveyed in a State Street survey last September said they want to bring their own bags, but they always forget,” she said.
She hopes the campaign will have many of the reminder signs up in parking lots and stores by the end of next month, when the campaign will officially launch with an event at De la Guerra Plaza.
On August 28 from 2 to 5 p.m., King and coordinators from other partner agencies — including Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Tri-County Produce, the California Grocer’s Association and the city’s environmental services division — will set up informational tables in the plaza. The Banana Slug String Band will provide entertainment and local nonprofits will hold giveaways, officials said.
The following day, organizers plan to set up tables at community events and in front of participating stores to help spread the word about the campaign.
Comment on this article
Text size : 7/17/2009
You have more empty space in this article than that used by the font which is unpleasantly small. It would be more pleasant to read if he leading was shorter, and the font one size greater.
Tab
The true Agenda : 7/17/2009
“I think we need to outlaw paper bags as well, and get people to bring their own bags,” she said, adding later, “The more we can get people to do it voluntarily, the easier it will be to ease into legislation.” Anything that has to be EASED is obviously painful. One step closer to enviro fascist control of your lives....kiss freedom good bye as the environmentalists tell you how much air you can breathe, how many blankets to use on your bed, how much living area you will be rationed, what kind of food to eat, which car to drive and how far... where you are allowed to go for vacation, when you can use your heater or air conditioner. News for ya - You're not "easing"' ANYTHING into legislation over my life!!
: 7/17/2009
So we are to be SHAMED into politically correct behavior by the nanny libs? Who is going to shame the manufacturers using plastic packaging in the first place? Punish them not the user. Go to the source. You don't end the drug problem by putting the user in jail! And plastic grocery bags are an insignificant part of the problem, but it makes us all feel better to nag and shame and punish those who find them convenient, doesn't it?
The People's Repulic of Santa Barbara : 7/17/2009
Welcome to this insane Politically Correct, Socialist State within the United States called Santa Barbara... This is just the tip of the iceberg. The city of Santa Barbara has an agenda that they are forcing down our throats. From the Creeks Division who is telling all city employees to stop washing cars (yes folks, soon it will be illegal to wash your vehicle on your driveway) to the Urban Forest Division that wants us all to believe we need more UN Natural ,NON native trees growing in a city that 100 years ago had very few trees except near creeks, and now the bag police... Let Freedom Ring...!
A Small Step Toward Solving a Great Need : 7/17/2009
Disposable plastic bags are destructive to the environment. Go on line and look at the documented evidence. They are used only bc stores believe they are cheaper than paper (certainly not however in the excessive manner they are handed out by untrained store personnel) and bc people are too lazy or forgetful or selfish to bring in reuseable bags. The Plastics Industry has bought off the legislature to pass laws protecting its producers and to kill laws making it easily possible for local government in California to do what even unenlightened countries such as China have done--ban the bags. However it is also true that city staff has its own agenda and has blocked more aggressive actions that might have been taken on our local level. They persist in repeating the questionable claim that paper bags are worse (certainly not true when they get into the ocean, creeks or lakes) to further their pretense that they have insights and knowledge that the rest of us don't have access to. They certainly have diverted and temporized OVERWHELMING LOCAL PUBLIC SUPPORT for banning plastic bags which, despite the Plastics Industry lobbying, could be done should staff follow the path of other cities in California. Thus, while this article details a good step toward the necessary final resolution of this environmental nightmare that nightmare is not going to be over until we ban the use of recyclable plastic bags. Meanwhile the pollution and environmental damage such products impose continues to grow. And remember the impact of this pollution will not go away in our lifetime even if we stopped today.
Glen Mowrer
bags v freedom : 7/17/2009
You guys are being ridiculous. These bags end up killing animals, filling up our landfills, require petroleum to manufacture, and are used for barely 7 minutes between the grocery store and your home. Stop feeling and acting like a victim and go fight a battle where your real freedoms are actually being trampled... Cheers Glen Mowrer
bababuoy
Save the Earth? : 7/17/2009
Hey Glen...How many off sring do you and MS. King have between the two of you? You have left an impact and should be ashamed of yourself! I will use plastic or wood bags and continue to use my BBQ as well! :)
the real issue : 7/17/2009
Im all for larger font size. I can't comment about what I cant friggin see. I'm only 45 and I have to use a magnifying glass when I am tired
mcblaze
Nature versus The Duffus : 7/18/2009
Plastic bags are disgusting! Paper at least will disintegrate eventually. To these childish, selfish,spoiled and entirely wasteful whiners I say, grow up, get over it and get some bags!
Bag Lady
Listen Up Bag Lady... : 7/18/2009
As one of the previous posters stated, it's NOT about the platic bags.... It's about our choices and freedoms being lost based on a "coalition" dictating what we can and cannot do based on politically correct theories. We that poster said about the city and car washing is true, next is bbq-ing and a lawn mowing will be banned. The hippocrosy is laughable... I love watching all these Trader Joe shoppers being smug in the store with there reusable bags, and then walking out to their Range Rovers and Escalades. Personally, I like plastic bags cause I use them to pickup my dogs crap.
Get Over Your Smug Self Righteous Self
America's Waste Gene : 7/18/2009
America is wasteful. One only has to look at the disgusting mess left after a movie performance. Or the litter left on the highway and parking lots, including plastic bags festooned and waving in the breeze for others to clear up. Talk about your pathetic freedoms until you are blue in the face but you simply have no idea how ridiculous you sound. Environmentalists are jeered at and treated to the contempt by the thoughtless but at least they are trying to make a difference. Packets of smallish brown paper bags can be purchased at the grocery store and used to pick up dog deposits. Think paper not plastic.
From Denmark
Denmark...? : 7/18/2009
Isn't that the country that depleated all the fishing resoucres in the North Sea? The same county that can't even run a newspaper cartoon about another culture because it's politically uncorrect? Where you get taxed at 68%???
To ? : 7/18/2009
No country is perfect. At least we can speak, spell and write English better than some who live here, in a country where English is the mother language!
Denmark
Its a matter of choice : 7/19/2009
Denmark, intellectual narcissism is a disease, get treatment. Yes some of us might be slobs or careless or both. Some of us may not know more than one language and not even that one very well but one thing we do have here that you middle aged babies don’t over there, we can choose what we want to do here. When you nanny run sissies over there can figure out how to tie your own shoes or wipe your nose without direction from the state then you can come over here and feel smug enough to tell us our faults. Oh, and just remember whose watching your back against the bad guys ya bunch of terrorist appeasing cowards.
AN50
plastic bags : 7/20/2009
There are cities which have banned these bags and other cities that charge for them. Either of these ideas would work.
It's a matter of Choice. : 7/20/2009
An example of the rhetoric which explains why the Bush American Mac-bully is despised abroad and losing his grip at home.
Rene
Right, we're still blaming Bush : 7/20/2009
Rene, when you finally do something in your life worthy of real self esteem then maybe you can stop this pathetic left wing habit of obsequious behavior. We are despised because we can and do make our own choices as individuals and a nation (for better or worse, that is the price of freedom), something you spineless cowards on the left are not comfortable with. You constantly seek approval from those you feel are better than you, in this case European socialist. Fine, be that way just don’t expect the rest of us to become a bunch of sniveling tyrant appeasing adult babies to make you feel better about yourself. The only thing we are losing here at home is what the Europeans lost some time ago, a spine. As for the great plastic bag debacle, you cannot change behavior by force, you can only hide it. Plastic garbage ends up in the ocean because people are dumping it there. Ocean dumping is already illegal, so start enforcing the law. Stopping the production of plastic bags will not stop ocean dumping, get a freaking clue people. It’s like trying to stop murder by outlawing guns or a runny nose by outlawing Kleenex.
AN50
AN50 : 7/20/2009
Get a grip and a job. You obviously have neither.
Rene
Kettle or Pot? : 7/20/2009
Funny Rene, isn’t that what I said about you?
AN50
AN50 : 7/20/2009
Not sure. Don't think so. However it was difficult to wade through all that verbal diarrhea and convoluted rhetoric....
Rene
Annoying : 7/22/2009
I reuse the bags for my babies dirty diapers (they're easy to scrunch up and throw in a diaper bag). Also, it's a lot cheaper to reuse these than buy the refills for those diaper Genie things. Anyway...I don't feel the need to have to explain that every time I go shopping. I use my reusable bags every other time...but I still see the merit in plastic and paper bags. If you want to ban them then create a corn based alternative to the plastic bag...something. Or perhaps charge a deposit for the reusables that can be returned for full refund at any store. Something.
Whatever
When we all do our small part we can change the big picture! : 7/23/2009
Just imagine what a difference we could make if everyone was using a reusable bag instead of plastics! I began recycling plastic bags into reusables over a year ago. I'm working in my local area to help with the plastic bag problem by recycling single use plastic bags for 15 different families! I make them into reusable bags, totes purses and backpacks :0) So far I've kept over 3000 plastic bags from the waste stream. One person really can make a difference http://www.FatBottomBags.com
Christi Spangler - Recycle crafter
Re:Re:manufacturer of shopping bags : 7/30/2009
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Mike
Contact Us!
411 E. Canon Perdido, Ste 2
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone (805) 564-6001
Fax (805) 962-9101
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