GOT PLASTIC ???

We know what you are thinking… What does Plastic have to do with an organization dedicated to the preservation of endangered species?  Well it is simple.  While we are all about saving endangered species, we realize that unless we also do something about our environment, all our efforts to save the Sea Turtles or other Marine life etc. will be wasted because we are only saving them to to have to live a life amongst our pollution.

Here is an awesome video about Plastic Pollution, and in particular about the harm of single use plastic bags.  We just bought the movie rights for this movie and are ready to show it at any venue or event.  Just give us a call or send us an email and we will gladly schedule a viewing for your organization/school/business etc.

Bag It intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

Did you know that the number-one item which is polluting our oceans (besides cigarette butts) is Plastic?  Did you know that America consumes over 1-Billion single use plastic bags each year?  Did you know that simply switching to paper bags is not much better for our environment because of the amount carbon the production of paper bags produces?

Check out this awesome video which does a great job explaining the problem with cool music:

Here are also some sobering facts from our friends at Green Sangha:

Consequences of Convenience

We’re addicted to plastic, especially plastic bags.
If you are like 95% of US shoppers, whenever you purchase anything, it ends up in a plastic bag.  In the grocery store, most of us put our vegetables and fruits as well as bulk items into single-use plastic produce bags, and all those bags end up in a single-use plastic check-out bag.

Shoppers worldwide are using 500 billion to one trillion single-use plastic bags per year.
This translates to about a million bags every minute across the globe, or 150 bags a year for every person on earth.  And the number is rising.

“But plastic bags are so convenient!”
It depends on how far you are looking.  A plastic bag may be convenient for a minute or two when you carry something out of the store, but consider these costs:

• Plastic bags are made from a non-renewable resource: oil!
  An estimated 3 million barrels of oil are required to produce the 19 billion plastic bags used annually in California.
• Greenhouse gas emissions
  Plastic manufacturing’s air pollution contributes greatly to global “weirding” (extreme weather of all sorts) we are experiencing is the result.
• Non-biodegradable
  Plastic is food for no one.  It never completely breaks down.
• Litter
  We see bags hanging on trees, along the roadside, slipping down the storm drain, and floating in the ocean.  Even when we do put them in the garbage, they don’t always make it to the landfill.  47% of landfill blow-away trash is plastic.
• Toxicity
  Manufacturing plastic releases toxins in the air, as does recycling plastic.  The additives used in plastic are often toxic and can leach into our food.  The surface of plastic is chemically attractive to some of the worst toxins in our environment (e.g., PCBs and pesticide metabolites).
• Harm to Marine Life
  More than 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, one million seabirds, and countless fish worldwide are killed by plastic rubbish each year.
• Choking the ocean
  Beaches on every continent are littered with plastic scraps and particles.  In a recent surface trawl of the North Pacific Gyre, 46 pounds of plastic were found for every pound of zooplankton.
• We’re eating plastic
  Fine particles of plastic are taken in by filter-feeders in the ocean.  These plastic-laden small creatures are then eaten by larger animals and plastics work their way up the food chain, all the way to our seafood menu.

Here is a video that better explains the Bag-Ban and how it would affect communities and our environment.  A special thanks to the two who were instrumental in getting the ban passed Katherine Nguyen and Juli Schulz;

Bag ban in Los Angeles from Surfrider Foundation on Vimeo.

Here is a great article on how you can make a difference right in your own home:

Here are 10 ways to reduce plastics in your home

From the folks at Southern.com

Finally, here is a link which takes you to several great videos on the subject from the folks at TEDx called The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

We hope you have learned a few things by reviewing these resources and that you will contact your State Representative and ask them how to Ban the Bags in your community.

Thanks for helping us find a solution 😉