Ban Plastic Bags in SLO County

Did you know that an average of 157,975,500 plastic bags are used in just one year in SLO county alone (according to census data and national averages of plastic bag use). Each of these bags was used only an average of 12 minutes and then are left to enter landfills and the ocean. Overall in the US, not even 1% of these plastic bags are being recycled, and they cannot be recycled at all in San Luis Obispo county. 

There is currently a plastic bag ban in place that is not effective. This is because there is a stipulation included that allows retailers, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. to provide bags at point of sale that are considered “reusable”, so retailers have provided “thicker” plastic bags to comply with that standard. Out of the thousands of plastic bags that are provided and used daily, a very large portion are never being reused and those thicker bags are just exacerbating the problem of plastic pollution. Please take a moment of your time to participate in this action alert, (sent to local Integrative waste management) to support a comprehensive plastic bag ban in SLO county.