Walmart...Getting a Head-Start on the Bag Ban in California

Well, well, well...hello to progressive retail, from...Walmart? YEP! Walmart, the largest grocery retailer in the United States, AND the largest private employer is starting to kick the single-use bag habit. Three Walmart stores in Norther California are conducting a pilot program in which they are operating as if the pending state bag ban had been passed. According to reports, things are going well, with the biggest "complaint" being the usual "I never remember to bring my reusable bags with me..." - but in this case, shoppers w/o bags find that their only option is to buy bags at checkout.

Pretty astounding? Well, yeah, but really it's just smart business - especially if the pending ban ban legislation being considered becomes law this year. Businesses can either grump and complain, or...get into the spirit of the movement and make it a positive change for themselves AND their customers...either way, Mother Nature will be grateful...!

Be sure to contact your CA state senator to tell them that you want them to pass the bag ban , AB 1998. It's now in the hands of the state Senate, having passed the Assembly earlier this month. Do what you can!!

A couple of articles on Walmart's progressive action:

Fast Company & Good Magazine.

The video embedded in the above articles probably won't work for you [youtube wants the ad revenue ;)], so here is the direct link for that.

Hawai'i's Bag Fee Legislation

So, here I am on my wonderful Hawai’ian vacation (actually free-boardin’ at Mom’s), suckin’ up moco loco & pancakes at Zippy’s, bustin’ out the Honolulu Advertiser, Aloha Friday edition (swell don’t arrive ‘till Monday)…and lo & behold, there is an Op/Ed page piece by Stuart H. Coleman, Surfrider’s own Hawaiian Islands Field Coordinator, concerning a pending state-wide legislative bill that would implement a 5-cent fee for all plastic bags dispensed at grocery checkout. Can we call this “Hawai’I 0-5”? (queue the drums of the TV show theme song.)


Maui and Kaua’i have already enacted county-wide (each island is its own county of the same name) bans that will take effect 1/1/11. There is a chance that the new proposed fee, being statewide, could supersede the outright bans on those two islands. Not what we’d like to see, frankly, but as the saying goes, “somes better’n none”. Stay tuned for that teapot tempest.

Details about the fee (not a “tax”, haole-boy) are in Stu's Op/Ed item and in a local KITV feature report. Of course, we’d love to see a higher fee being proposed, but this may work well here as retailers & legislators both see it as "relatively painless" – and, as we’ve found in places like Washington DC, even a small fee can change the knee-jerk acceptance of these insipid items of environment-threatening instant trash.

Sidebar note: The KITV video also actually shows Stuart doing a bit of grocery shopping too – dispelling any rumors that after becoming “rich and famous”, as the author of the best selling Island-based tomes Eddie Would Go and last year’s Fierce Heart, that he has his own personal shopper taking care of that mundane task - check ‘um out, bra!

DC Bag Fee User Experience

Alan Honadle, a California boy (former Surfrider San Diego chairman as well) is currently working in Washington, DC and filed this report from his local drug store there:

"The Scenario:

San Diego Surfrider member Alan Honadle, presently freezing his tuckus off on a three month work stint in our nation's fine capital, shuffled up to the counter of his neighborhood business district CVS yesterday morning. In hand he clutched some vitamin D milk for his milkless java, which was sitting sad, cold, and alone on his office desk. The nice lady behind the counter then informed him of the new 5 cent fee on all plastic and paper bags in the city.

"If you wanna bag, we gotta charge you five cents now," the CVS lady hesitantly explained.

"REALLY!?!", Alan shouted back, half surprised but with a grin that grew larger by every passing second.

"DUDE!........SaWEET!", Alan's synapses finally starting to fire.

"Saweet"? The CVS lady softly repeated back. She wasn't expecting that response.

"Ya man....less plastic, right?" Alan offered up.

"Ohhhhh.....ya, that's right.", the lady said as she started to come to life herself.

"Ya, that green thing.", she went on. "Ya, i guess we're really doing this." Then, after a bit of a pause, "it feels pretty good too, actually."

Alan tried to jump in too fast, as he always seems to do in conversations. But he had no shot this time. The CVS lady was rolling now, taking back control of the counter.

"And, if you buy this green reusable bag over here for one dollar", placing the bag in front of one delighted Alan, "every fourth time you use it in our stores, you get one dollar off your purchase."

"OK", Alan proclaimed, with an instant kangaroo bounce in his step. "You have a really great day Latosha!"

"It's Latisha."

"Oh, I'm sorry Latisha." Alan replied sincerely and with apology.

"Not to worry", Latisha said, as clear and warm as a bright sunny day. "You have a fine day too....By the way, what's your name?"

"Alan", Alan replied, feeling quickly overcome with joy and happiness that can only come from a personal exchange as pure as the one that just transpired.

"Cheers", he said while exiting.


But then, while walking back to work, and with more time to think about what had actually just happened, it dawned on him the REAL reason for his bursting joy and happiness.....

He stopped, dead in his tracks, and realized in a moment of clarity, that a few really cool people can actually make a huge difference. People like Julie Lawson and the Washington DC Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

The End....

Congratulations DC on your Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009! Your Redskins may bight serious cheese [Disclaimer: this is not the official Surfrider position. ;) ], but your 5 cent bag fee REALLY made my Monday morning (and the morning of a whole lot more people who actually know what's good for us all)!

Surfrider was and is simply the vehicle. Your passion and determination provided the victory for a cleaner city, local waterways, and beaches. Let us all replicate and turn our noses with confidence to those that think a bag fee isn't a positive step forward. National and State laws are great, but here's to you not sitting around waiting for that to happen.

Stand Proud, Enjoy your Moment, and keep fighting!"

Fab Bag Vid

With a shoutout to our friends over at the Plastic Pollution Coalition, I proudly snatch one of their recent posts to bring you a fab BYOBag video - here is their post:

"We are delighted to share with you this YouTube video, an awesome music clip featuring Tim Minchin. The message is as simple as it is important: bring your own canvas bags to the store!

Directed by Stephen Leslie, this video was originally recorded for BBC’s Comedy Shuffle. We’d like to thank our friend Sara Bayles, author of the popular blog The Daily Ocean for giving us the heads up."



Take time to check the Plastic Pollution Coalition website out - they got their heads screwed on juuuust right!

Turtle Bags?

Paper, plastic...or did you bring your Turtle Bag today?

True-life story, ghost-posted for author Anna Donlin,

of West LA / Malibu Surfrider chapter (& Brazil) fame.

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While waiting for my coffee at the Bristol Farms in Manhattan Beach recently, one of the store’s grocery checkout ladies came by to say hello to the barrista that was serving me. “Galveston is gone.” said the checkout lady after they exchanged hellos. She had just returned from visiting family in Texas after the recent tropical storm had hit there. Being curious, I joined their conversation.

The checkout lady noticed that I’d brought my own ceramic mug, which changed the conversation to plastics. I mentioned that the take out cup lids, as extruded styrene (Styrofoam), were not recyclable, and that me bringing my own cup was a way that I could reduce waste. She was impressed by the idea. Then the checkout lady brought up the North Pacific Gyre, beating me to it. “It’s awful,” she said, after asking if I knew what it was, swirling her hand in the clockwise circular motion of the gyre. “Yeah, the size of Texas,” I said. She then brought up an experience at the checkout where a customer didn’t believe there was any problem with using plastic, and was brusque about it, asking for a plastic bag explicitly. She gave him his plastic bag…

She got me thinking about the job of being a checkout person. How much plastic do they see used every day? Are they even aware of things or do they battle their conscious when handing out plastic bags like this woman does? How can they be educated/empowered in a Rise Above Plastics campaign?

Then there was one last thing the checkout lady wanted to tell me. Her niece in the UK and her schoolmates use recyclable lunch bags they call “Turtle Bags.” Turtle Bags because plastic bags kill turtles they say. Using the Turtle Bags save turtles. These schools and children have made the association. Let’s import the Turtle Bag idea! It’s much more fun and easier to say than “recyclable bag.”

I left with the checkout lady saying that she was now going to start using a ceramic mug for her coffee and with me declaring that I was so impressed about Turtle Bags story that I’m writing about it here. I love these exchanges where everyone learns something and leaves a little richer for it.

Anna Donlin

Barbadian Bags and Filth in the Phillipines

On the international front in two different island nations, there is a concern about plastic bags. First in Barbados, the Nation News writes about a pilot project by a local supermarket chain, with the help of an environmental group, to promote reusable shopping bags.

Early last month, managing director of SuperCentre, David Neilands, and Carlton and Emerald City's Andrew Bynoe said they, along with Jordan's Supermarket, were working together in an effort to reduce the millions of plastic bags they dished out yearly to customers, while seeking to trim operating costs and reduce the amount of bags ending up in the landfill.

SuperCentre alone imports about 14 million bags a year at a cost of over $1 million.

Neilands said then that if the survey proved successful, they would look at bringing in larger quantities. "[It] is important to get a real sense of what kind of commitment is genuinely out there for people to use the bag," he added.

With the rising cost of petroleum impacting the movement of goods, it's interesing to see that the import of bags enters into the equation. Read the rest of the piece here. In the Philippines there is concern over the pollution that's being caused by plastic bags. A number of environmental groups, including one called
the EcoWaste Coalition recently staged an advocacy walk to raise awareness of the problems that plastic bags cause and to promote reusable bags.

Our addiction to plastic bags is already taking a heavy toll on the environment. We see them strewn all over, dirtying our streets, clinging to fences, and polluting our water bodies. Even the sky has not escaped being defiled by buntings made of plastic bags," said Alvarez, who is also the vice-president of the EcoWaste Coalition.

A study made by the EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace Southeast Asia in 2006 shows that 76% of the floating trash in Manila Bay are mostly synthetic plastic materials, with plastic bags comprising 51%, sachets and junk food wrappers 19%, Styrofoams 5% and hard plastics 1%. The rest are rubber 10% and biodegradable discards 13%.

Read more about their efforts here.

Live Free or Die, Without a Plastic Bag

Out of New Hampshire, the Granite State, comes 16 year old Nicholas Birkbeck, a high school junior who was inspired by information he read on the internet to launch an initiative to pass a ban on plastic bags in the City of Portsmouth. His mother, Denise Martinez, spoke about her son's quest

"Young people know right from wrong ... when young people want to do something for the community and it is the right thing, (adults) should let it happen," Martinez said, adding she has been thrilled to see so much community support so far.

Read about Nicholas here and drop him a line using the e-mail at the end of the story.

No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn!

NY1, the 24 hour, New York, Newschannel, has a story about Broolkyn lawmakers passing out reusable bags

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined elected officials and environmentalists in Downtown Brooklyn Tuesday to hand out canvas bags to shoppers as part of the "My Green New York" campaign.

The event aimed to encourage people to put down the plastic bags and pick up more environmentally-friendly ones.

"We're lowering the amount of garbage in our landfills. And we're preserving energy because we're not using the plastic, all the energy it takes to make the plastic bags. And this is much more convenient and helpful," said Markowitz.

"Yeah, it will take a long time to get us out of using plastic bags. But I'm really trying. And I reuse my plastic bags when I do accept them," said shopper Jane Parkerton.

Read the rest of the piece, and watch the video here.