CA Bag Legislation Still Alive: Call in your support

Please support the bag bill!
Contact Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata: (916) 651-4009
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass: (916) 319-2047
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: (213) 897-0322.

Contrary to industry claims, bringing your own bag produces significant economic and environmental benefits. Families are now paying twice for using plastic and paper bags -- through higher grocery bills (costs are embedded in food prices) and government taxes and fees. About $375 million each year is spent in California on cleanups and other efforts to mitigate the environmental effect of disposable bags, costing each household about $200.

Nations around the world have shown that a fee-per-bag policy can reduce bag use by 90% overnight. Such a reduction would save hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lower grocery bills and tax expenditures. In this time of economic uncertainty, we need to champion AB 2058, not shelve it. The bill would require that all revenues from the fee be used for litter cleanup activities, providing free, reusable bags to low-income families and implementation of programs to reduce global warming.

Supervisors Yvonne B. Burke and Zev Yaroslavsky represent Los Angeles County's 2nd District and 3rd District, respectively. They wrote to the LA Times on August 15th...

Read the full LA Times Op-Ed

AB 2058: Not a tax, a choice. Make the best choice and bring reusable bags.

Why support AB 2058? Listen to a scientist:

We're in the home stretch for AB 2058, a California bill that will protect the environment from paper and plastic bags! Bills must be out of the legislature by August 22. Click here to send a letter or call your California Senator. It only takes 1 minute to keep plastic bags out of the ocean for thousands of years.


Plastic bag manufacturers and big oil are digging into their deep pockets to pay guys like this to do smear campaigns against AB 2058. They bought radio spots on stations in LA, and probably beyond. They're spreading misleading information about the bill and plastic bags. Click here for the facts.

Please post and distribute this message on blogs, websites, list serves, etc. We need letters and support to get the bill passed!

It's easy to support AB 2058!

Under AB 2058, large grocery stores and pharmacies would be required to charge a 25 cent fee for paper and plastic grocery bags, the proceeds of which would be used for local litter reduction, cleanup and prevention programs. This fee-based approach has encouraged shoppers to bring their own reusable bags and has reduced plastic bag consumption in Ireland by over 90%.

Oceans are like plastic soup: Pacific Gyre studies

A crew of scientists sail out to the Pacific Gyre to study the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" where plastic outnumbers plankton 6 to 1. This video starring the scientist who first discovered the plastic soup in the Gyre shows why we should always bring our own ChicoBag instead of using plastic.


Every piece of plastic ever made still exists.

"A one-liter bottle will break down into enough fragments to put one on every square mile of beach in the entire world."

A raft built using trash sails from LA to Hawaii to bring attention to the Pacific Garbage Gyre

Scientist builds raft that floats on 15,000 plastic bottles to bring attention to the rapid accumulation of plastic trash in the North Pacific Ocean: He's got our attention. What his video below...



The plastic industry has no intention to make less plastic and they blame the consumer for the problem. Recycling programs are part of the solution, but legislation to ban or tax disposable plastics is a solution that's working around the world."

- Dr. Marcus Eriksen



News broadcast about the boat made from junk.

Fortune Magazine features Bag Monsters and ChicoBag!

The Bag Monsters are getting some serious media coverage these days! First it was the San Francisco Chronicle in November, 2007, now Fortune Magazine? They're mobilizing because they're being replaced by ChicoBags.

"Some plastic bags live under the sink. Others become part of a Bag Monster, a costume created by the ChicoBag Co. of Chico, Calif., out of 500 plastic bags---roughly the number an American shopper uses in a year. Over the past several months, 20 Bag Monsters have roamed California streets (pictured here in San Francisco at the corner of Church and 20th) promoting ChicoBag's own reusable nylon bags and advocating that consumers stop using traditional plastic bags, which aren't biodegradable and often end up in the ocean."
---Telis Demos

Bag Monster makes a friend at SF Earth Day Festival

Despite being the guest of dis-honor at the Earth Day Festival, the Bag Monster did make one friend, 4-year-old Noah shared his ChicoBag with the monster, much to its chagrin. Noah's dad wrote a great blog about the day, read the snippet below, it shows how brilliant kids are, and how Bag Monsters help people to adopt healthy habits.



Earth Day Special: Noah meets the Bag Monster.

Noah learned a lot during the conversation about the Monster. Later he demonstrated what he learned when he picked up a piece of plastic off the ground. I asked him what he was going to do with it and he said "Give it to the Bag Monster's mom", "Oh yeah, who is that?" I inquired so Noah expalined: "she is an old bag and she lives in the ocean".

Bag Monster speaks at SF Earth Day Festival

A Bag Monster shared the stage with ChicoBag inventor, Andy Keller, in front of an estimated 30,000 people who had gathered to celebrate the Earth with great music and great speakers... But that Bag Monster would have none of it! The Bag Monster told its story of migrating to San Francisco in the 1970's in search of tolerance and explained that because of the bag ban, he would move to a city more tolerant of plastic pollution. With the booing from the audience, and Keller's confident, "I don't need you anymore Bag Monster, I've got my own bag!" the Bag Monster sauntered off defeated, thanks to San Francisco's bag ban and ChicoBags.