"Where's Your Bag" is a comprehensive voluntary single-use bag reduction program. The City of Santa Barbara's Environmental Services Division, in conjunction with local partners Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Choose to Reuse, Tri-County Produce, and the California Grocer's Association, has worked to create an effective single-use bag reduction strategy and we're proud to announce the rollout of the "Where's Your Bag" program. In the coming weeks, we'll be training participating store staff and management and distributing several types of signage designed to remind shoppers to bring their bags with them into the store. These items include parking lot signs, window decals for customers' cars, in-store placards and buttons for grocery employees.
When? The "Where's Your Bag" program will be launched on Friday, August 28, 2009 at De La Guerra Plaza with a kick-off event from 2:00 to 5:00pm. We'll have entertainment by the "Banana Slug String Band," art projects for kids provided by Art from Scrap, informational tables, giveaways from local non-profits and much more!
Why? Plastic bags are causing huge problems in our oceans - animals like sea turtles die when they mistake them for food and the plastic breaks down into small bits that end up in the fish we eat. They are also a large source of unintentional street litter. The average person uses over 500 paper and plastic bags per year and our goal is to dramatically reduce that number. Paper bag production is extremely energy intensive - far more than plastic bags. Only a small percentage of each type of bag is recycled. "Where's Your Bag" aims to educate the community about the problems associated with single-use bags and an easy solution - bringing reusable bags whenever you shop.
How? We're partnering with local chain and independent grocery stores, providing them with starter kits of "reminder signage" and in-store employee training sessions. We'll also be tabling at community events and in front of participating stores on Saturday, August 29th as well as other dates.
To share your outreach ideas or ask questions about the "Where's Your Bag" program, please contact Kathi King
