Thank you for your interest in our “Say No To Plastic Bags” Coalition. We are so glad you care enough about our environment to want to learn more about how you can help us with our initiative. We started our campaign after our trip to New Orleans in 2010 where we went to help out during the Gulf oil spill. We had collected animal rescue supplies for several months after the oil spill, then in Aug of 2010 we drove the supplies down and worked with the folks at the Marine Mammal & Sea Turtle Rescue Center.
While we were there helping out, one of the professors who was volunteering her time from California pulled us aside and applauded us for our efforts but then asked what we as an organization were doing to help clean up the environment. Surprised at her question, I advised her that we were only concentrating on trying to help save endangered species. She then pointed out to us that it was all fine and well that we were helping out the way we were, but continued by saying that unless we try and also do something about our polluted oceans, we were essentially spinning our wheels because we were placing these rehabbed animals in a polluted environment…. and she was right.
We returned from our trip and spent the next 5-months educating ourselves on the largest issues facing our oceans and decided to focus on helping to reduce the amount of plastic pollution. In Feb 2011 we launched our “Say No To Plastic Bags” Coalition and in March 2011 we launched our “Plastic Awareness Week” educational program which we feature in schools, churches and other organizations as a vehicle to educate kids all over about the harms of plastic trash and in particular single use plastic bags.
Here are some of the reasons why we are targeting single use plastic bags:
- Each year the average consumer uses over 500- single use plastic bags
- In America alone, we use an estimated 1-million single use plastic bags every minute
- Less than 10% of these bags ever get recycled, leaving the other 90% to end up in our landfills where they sit for hundreds of years, or they end up in our oceans
- Each year over 1-million seas birds and over 100,000 marine mammals die from ingesting plastic…and the list goes on.
Educating communities across the country to the harm of single use plastic bags is a great way for us to help citizens make a conscious decision about what they can do to help be the solution to this immense problem. We are not trying
to force a Plastic Bag Ban on communities nor say that they have to enact a “Fee Type” program (although they tend to be the most desirable for most communities and offer the quickest results). We merely want to provide communities with the necessary data so they may collectively enact the best possible program for their particular community.
We started the “Say No To Plastic Bags” Coalition as a way to allow individuals and like-minded organizations a vehicle to announce their mutual concern to the issue. As we move forward and start to schedule meetings with various community council members and mayor offices across the country, we will undoubtably need the support from local and national organizations in order to garner enough clout to be considered a viable cause worth supporting. The coalition gives each organization and community a voice that is unified in its desire to affect change.
If your interested in having your organization/company join our coalition, please send an email to info(at)onemoregeneration(dot)org along with a high resolution jpeg file of your logo. We will also need a brief bio about your organization and 1-sentence which explains why the issue is important to you. The “Say No To Plastic Bags” Coalition offers our partners many benefits and services. There are no annual dues or obligations. We encourage feedback from partners to help us, best help you and also gladly accept voluntary contributions so we may continue our work with all our partners.
SIGN OUR PETITION TODAY!
For all individuals interested in joining by signing our petition, please click here to be taken to the “I Support The Say No To Plastic Bags Coalition” petition where we are attempting to collect over 10,000 signatures from supporters worldwide who also want to see these bags removed from our landfills and oceans.
We also ask that you sign up for our OMG email list located to the right of this post so you can stay abreast of all the latest OMG News and please “Follow us on Twitter:@1moregeneration“ and “Like” us on FaceBook as well.
Thank you in advance for your support and for caring.
Best regards from the entire OMG Team 😉
