Santa Monica to Consider Plastic Bag Ban and Paper Bag Tax

See LA Times blog for full story: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/emeraldcity/2008/02/santa-monica-to.html

Next RAP Meeting Planned for March 25

I have tentatively scheduled the next Rise Above Plastics meeting for March 25 at 6:30 p.m. The location is yet to be determined. Please email me at elizabeth@surfridersd.org if you plan to attend, and let me know from what part of town you will be coming.

Plastic Bag Bans in other San Diego Cities?

A lot of people are interested in working on plastic bag bans in other cities in San Diego County. Other than the City of San Diego, which we are making an organized effort to approach with SD Coastkeeper and other enviro groups, you can start your own campaign to outlaw the pesky plastic bags. The first step would be to sit down with an enviro minded city council
member or his or her staff, and talk about the best way to get such an ordinance in front of the city council and get it passed. They may tell you that the only was is a voter referendum, or they may say that they need to see public support (this is
where the petitions come in). The process and attitude about such things vary by city, so meeting wiith decision makers is an
important first step. If you have an enviro city council member in your city, they should be able to help you come
up with an overall plan for what will work there. If you get something started, let us know and we will post it to solicit help from others in your community.

E-Waste Event April 5 in Leucadia

Surfrider San Diego Chapter will be co-sponsoring a e-waste recycling event at Paul Ecke Elementary School in Leucadia on April 5. We are looking for volunteers to help at the event and staff a Rise Above Plastics / Surfrider booth. Please email me if you can help out. elizabeth@surfridersd.org

Plastic Bag Ban to be Proposed in Encinitas

Surfrider San Diego volunteers are working on gathering signatures of Encinitas residents in support of a reduction or elimination of plastic bags from Encinitas stores. We plan to gather at least 3,000 to present to the Encinitas City Council on Encinitas Environment Day. If you want to help gather signatures, email me at elizabeth@surfridersd.org for the petition.