RAP Map

Well...perhaps we (Rise Above Plastics activists) can't take credit for all of the little red balloons on the map, but those balloons DO point to localities that are rising above the plastics plague.


Chico Bag (manufacturers of fab nylon reusable shopping bags) has put together this boss interactive map, along with a listing of cities with embedded links to news stories about their local bag ban/fee efforts (my Firefox browser hiccuped a bit on this [but I am on the employers network...shhh! ;) ], so FYI, the page may best be viewed via the IE browser). Pretty slick compendium!

Chico Bag was the originator of the Bag Monster (as seen in earlier posts on this blog), and offers an Activist Tool Kit in PDF form to aid you in your battle against the bilious bummer of the ubiquitous single-use plastic shopping bag.

Hey - have a safe new years eve and SEE YA NEXT YEAR - 2011 is shaping up to be the best yet!

San Jose Knows The Way!

In the wake of the failure of a statewide legislative bag ban initiative (AB1998), the city of San Jose is another California burg taking matters into its own hands - moving to fashion an ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags, and to charge for paper bags.

...and those paper bags - YES, they have to be of recycled material...which pretty much harpoons the ACC's CEQA lawsuit strategy, which at face-value, appears to require cities to continue to pollute their environments via the scourge of the "urban tumbleweed".

So the landslide has begun - damn the ACC's penny-ante "solution" to the problem they've created for themselves...and the rest of us. We can only hope that other manufacturers are watching the ACC's un-neighborly litigious approach go down in flames. Meanwhile, pass the gasoline!

It's always exciting talking about California - but frankly, the "land of fruits and nuts" ain't proving to be that progressive at heart - I'm hoping for other states to push through some statewide bans - GO USA!

Details, particulars & minutiae:

San Jose Mercury News article.

Bay area TV news from KTUV.

RAP Rap Vid

He who hesitates is losssst...?

PLASTIC STATE OF MIND - Empire State of Mind Parody [IN YO FACE!]



RAPper: AshEL Eldridge
Singer: Jenni Perez

THANKS TO RISE ABOVE PLASTICS on FACEBOOK for hippin' me to this!

DAY W/O A BAG is...

TOMORROW, December 16th!

This global event was initiated by Heal The Bay just a few years ago and it comes each year amid the holiday shopping rush - giving shoppers not only something to use repeatedly (a reusable shopping bag), but something to ponder as well.

So ponder this: find your local Surfrider chapter's homepage here to see what they have planned in your area for this event, or to contact them about getting involved. I've been told that the San Diego Chapter has given away upwards of 10,000 (ten thoooouusand!) bags since DWOB commenced.

Need more info?? ==> Check out the Day Without A Bag website, and the "au populaire" Bag Ban Report website (both cleverly "hidden" in Heal The Bay's elaborate network of substantive web resources). WARNING: this website has TONS of information and tools for the budding bag-banner - so be sure to explore every nook and cranny - they're all there for YOU.

I got a fee-vuh and the only prescription is MORE REUSABLE BAGS!

Another One Bites the Dust

Herrrre weeee goOOoow (implied Mario Bros call)…! California cities are out of patience. That’s it. Done. Kaput. Finis. Ciao bella. Sayonara. Adios. EL FIN.

Bags are done. It was fun for a while, but let’s really get real. How many times can you put up with a pack of BPA-suckling inbreds with beet-stained teeth travelling 3000 miles to your little town just to sue you for tidying up your neighborhood? I think the towns’ residents reached have reached their limit, thankyouverrrymuch.

The city of Long Beach, with a grand measure of “encouragement” from the hard-hitting Long Beach Surfrider chapter, voted 6-2 (sorry, not even close) last week to fashion an ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags by next summer. Fabuloso Maximo!

So last month it was unincorporated LA County, now the city of Long Beach…who’ll be next…? Can you say "dominoes"? Hello Clean Beaches! Bravo Surfrider Long Beach!

California tried to be nice about this bag ban stuff this summer via AB1998 – in which the entire state could have had a nice uniform bag ban in place, but nooOOooo…the slack-jawed dingbats at the ACC had to make things difficult on everyone – AND now, themselves. They did their level-best to promote filthy neighborhoods by knocking that bill down with a landslide of payola, and now they should have their hands full suing every Golden State municipality that chooses to clean up their environs and reduce waste that ends up in the ocean. Gentlemen, start yer engines!

I can just hear the ACC parents telling their kids this holiday season, “Sorry Elwood, but we are being forced to spend your Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa pony money to sue every city in California – please accept this thrift-store athletic-support garment instead of the pony this year, OK?...oh, by the way, do you have your law degree yet, hmmmmm?”. What a tired paradigm…perhaps one day they’ll find value in working with bag-banning cities instead of against them, ya think?

It's gettin' dusty out west - NICE!
[Queue the last two seconds of AC/DC’s Shot Down In Flames.]