Holiday Reusable Bag Giveaway!

From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25%. Let’s make sure disposable shopping bags aren’t adding to the nearly 4 million tons of holiday waste! In honor of the holiday season, please join us in celebrating “A Day Without A Bag” on Thursday, December 15th.

Santa Barbara environmental groups including Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Community Environmental Council, SB Surfrider, the “Where’s Your Bag?” campaign, along with 6th grade students from Washington Elementary School are collaborating to promote the use of reusable bags in our community in honor of “A Day Without A Bag”. In its fifth year, “A Day Without A Bag” is a statewide campaign created by Heal the Bay to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of disposable bags and educate shoppers to adopt a more sustainable habit- using reusable bags every time they shop. With the help of local businesses, city government entities, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations, we are working together to spread the word about the environmental effects of single-use bags.

On Thursday, December 15th, free reusable bags will be distributed to shoppers at two Santa Barbara supermarkets: Scolari’s at 222 N. Milpas Street, Albertsons at 2010 Cliff Drive, and two locations on State Street at the Canon Perdido and Ortega cross streets near Paseo Nuevo shopping center. Community members are encouraged to participate by saying NO to paper AND plastic and using only reusable bags all day (and every day!) and can stop by one of the sites to get a free reusable bag and learn about the environmental impacts of disposable bags. Local retailer Volcom (625 State St.) is offering a reusable bag promotion as well; with the purchase of a Volcom reusable bag for $1 customers will receive a 10% discount on their entire purchase.

Californians use over 12 billion plastic grocery bags every year – about 400 per second – creating nearly 150,000 tons of waste in landfills and litter. Plastic bags litter Santa Barbara’s creeks and beaches and cost taxpayer’s money to cleanup. Cities and counties throughout California and the nation are taking action to prevent plastic bag pollution by banning disposable plastic and paper bags. Over 4 million residents in California now live in communities that have banned plastic bags and an additional 5 million live in cities actively working on bag ban ordinances. When these ordinances pass, nearly 1 in 3 Californians will have embraced reusable bags.

Please call Santa Barbara Channelkeeper at 563-3377 x1 for more information.