I wrote about plastic bags back in December and when I rode the LA River a couple weeks ago I really was disgusted.

What looked like snow on the branches of the trees and bushes was plastic bags.

This photo is from the Algalita Research Foundation:

If the photo is not shocking enough, watch the CBS video here.

Plastic is used in such a cavalier matter every day by everybody that it’s hard to figure out how to approach the subject and how to make the biggest impact in my community and amongst my friends.

I have talked to my local grocery stores for years:

1. Train the cashiers to ask not “Paper or plastic?” but ask “Did you bring your own bag?” or “Do you need a bag?”

2. Don’t bag a couple items that the buyer carried in their hand to the register. If they can carry it to the register, I’m sure they can carry it to their car or put the couple items into their shoulder bag or backpack.

3. If you sell canvas bags, sell them by the register and have the cashiers offer them instead of offering “Paper or plastic.”

4. If you offer money back to those who bring their own bags, don’t wait for the costumer to ask for the 5 cents but give it to them! Let the other people in the line know that those who bring their own bags will be rewarded.

5. And lastly, teach your workers about the impact plastic has on the environment (instead of having the TV show Jerry Springer in the break room!)

But all this always falls on deaf ears. Even today. I always bring my own bags to the store and even if I buy one item, they are so quick to bag it that instead of me saying “Hi, how are you” I say “I have my own bag.” And this comes across sometimes rude.

Here are the facts about plastic according to the petition that I’m asking you to sign today:

– According to the Environmental Protection Agency, we consume over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps in the United States alone, every year.

– In the U.S., consumers throw away about 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually, with an estimated cost to retailers at $4 billion.

– Plastic bags are petroleum based, and they litter countless landfills, often taking more than a thousand years to break down. This means that polymers of literally every single bag ever produced still exist somewhere, in some smaller form, on our planet.

– It takes over 400,000 gallons of crude oil to produce 100 million plastic bags. Less than 1% of these will be recycled.

– Hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine mammals, including whales and sea turtles, die every year from eating discarded plastic bags that they mistake for food.

– Plastic bags don’t actually biodegrade; instead, they constantly break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits (photodegrade). In the process, they contaminate soil and waterways. Eventually, they are accidentally eaten by many animals, and end up in the food chain, later to be consumed in many cases by humans.

– Despite efforts to reuse and recycle, studies have shown that plastic bags are consistently among the twelve items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups (Center for Marine Conservation.)

Please read about the campaign at www.greeneggsandplanet.com.Here is the petition that I’m asking you to sign!