Reusable Bag Giveaway, Thursday, December 16

Santa Barbara environmental groups, including Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, Santa Barbara Surfrider Foundation, Art From Scrap, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Choose to Reuse and the “Where’s Your Bag?” campaign, are collaborating to promote the use of reusable bags in our community in honor of A Day Without A Bag.

Now in its fourth year, A Day Without A Bag is a statewide campaign 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 16, free re-usable bags will be distributed to shoppers at two Santa Barbara supermarkets: Scolari’s at 222 N. Milpas Street, Tri County Produce at 335 S. Milpas Street, and two locations on State Street at the Canon Perdido and Ortega cross streets near Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center. Community members are encouraged to stop by one of the sites to get a free reusable bag and learn about the environmental impacts of disposable bags, or just participate by saying NO to paper AND plastic and using only reusable bags all day (and every day!).

Californians use over 19 billion plastic grocery bags every year – about 550 bags per person – sending nearly 150,000 tons of waste to landfills and to beaches, creeks and roadsides as litter. Plastic bags litter Santa Barbara’s creeks and beaches and cost taxpayer money to cleanup. Cities and counties throughout California and the nation are taking action to prevent plastic bag pollution by banning disposable plastic shopping bags. The City of Santa Barbara will be considering an ordinance to address disposable bag use in early 2011.

Please call Santa Barbara Channelkeeper at 563-3377 x0 for more information.

Santa Barbara Channelkeeper is a local non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and restore the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds through science-based advocacy, education, field work and enforcement. They are a member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance, and like the other 193 Waterkeepers across the globe, they work on the water and in their communities to monitor local waterways, restore aquatic ecosystems, advocate for clean water, enforce environmental laws, and educate and engage citizens in devising solutions to local water pollution problems.