California has become the first state in America to ban the single use plastic bag.

Yay California! I always thought you were the coolest. Now I know it’s true.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 California Governor, Edmund Brown signed legislation banning single use plastic bags statewide.

The single use plastic bag is one of the most problematic environmental hazards of our time.

Plastic bags are barely recyclable, used once and then discarded to the landfill or become a threat to our marine systems. Birds and animals mistake plastic bags for food and eat them—this is fatal. Or they break down and pollute our waterways and soil.

Single use plastic bags are one of the biggest sources of litter.

About one million plastic bags are used each minute and take 1000 years to degrade! Plastic never decomposes, it photodegrades—it breaks up into smaller pieces which are still toxic and contaminate soil, water and animals when digested. Every square mile of ocean had about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.

Single use plastic bags are completely unnecessary. Thank you California for your leadership in environmental activism! May all the states follow suit.

Write to your local congressman and representative in Washington and tell them why you want single use plastic bags banned in your state. Please—we all share this planet.

Click here for contact info for your state representative.

Click here to find the email and mailing address of your state’s congressmen/women.

Bring your own reusable bags with you wherever you go.

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Photo: geograph