Bag It Corvallis Connects to Local Businesses

On Monday, Jan. 9, supporters of Bag It Corvallis visited 41 local businesses. Six signed a letter of support and 30 showed positive interest, requesting that we contact them again. Tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 13) another Business Canvass takes place from 9 a.m. to noon.


Pictured: Dave Matthews of Environment Oregon joined Bag It Corvallis to canvass businesses on Monday.

Below is a copy of the letter of support that we are asking local businesses to sign:

January, 2012

Mayor Julie Manning and Corvallis City Council
501 SW Madison Ave. PO Box 1083
Corvallis, OR 97339-1083

RE: Corvallis Ordinance: “Encourage Reusable Bags and Ban Single-use Plastic Carryout Bags”

Dear Mayor and City Council:

We the undersigned business owners and small businesses in Corvallis, Oregon value the natural beauty of our state and want our environment and coasts to stay pristine. We want to express our support of a Single-Use Checkout Plastic Bag Ban here in Corvallis for the following reasons:

1. Cost Incentive. Retailers spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually to provide single-use bags to customers. For example, some supermarkets spend up to $1,500 to $6,000 a month just to provide single-use bags to their customers at check-out. Many major grocery stores realize this significant cost burden and offer discount incentives to customers who bring their own bags.
a. Stores typically pay 2 to 5 cents per plastic bag and 5 to 9 cents per paper bag. This can add up.. Therefore a minimal cost incentive of 5-cents per paper bag is reasonable. It is an incentive for people who forget their canvas bag, and to partially compensate retailers.

2. Environment. As businesses, we are also concerned with the environmental and economic impacts of plastic bag pollution in inland and coastal communities throughout the country. Americans use an estimated 102 billion single-use plastic bags every year.
a. The decision to recycle our way out of this problem is a false option. Despite efforts to expand recycling programs, a small percentage of single-use plastic bags are recycled. The rest of these bags end up in our landfills; as litter, clogging storm-drain systems; or make their way to our waterways and ocean.
b. It is estimated that 60–80% of all marine debris, and 90% of floating debris is plastic. Plastic lasts for hundreds of years in our environment and may never biodegrade in the ocean. As a result, it poses a persistent threat to wildlife, killing millions of marine animals like sea turtles and sea birds every year.

3. It’s Time. Portland has banned single-use plastic checkout bags, and cities across the state are moving forward with their own initiatives. Now is the time for Corvallis to demonstrate similar leadership in support of a sustainable future for all people and our natural environment.

Seattle Proposes Plastic Bag Ban

Seattle has joined the list of places that are pursuing a ban on single-use plastic bags. The city received a wake-up call late last month when more than 20 plastic bags were found inside the stomach of a juvenile gray whale stranded at Puget Sound.

People for Puget Sound posted a guest blog entry by David Todd that explains the situation: "Gray Whale's Death a Wakeup Call About Plastics."

On its website, the organization cites the following reasons for banning plastic bags:

"We need to take action because:
* Plastics harm our wildlife. Birds, fish, and whales can choke on them, they are poisonous, and they can become entangled.
* We need to reduce plastic pollution into our lakes, streams, Puget Sound and the ocean.
* Plastic bags are light-weight and easily blow into our waters. They break down into tiny bits but don’t biodegrade for hundreds of years.
* The tiny pieces of plastic, including plastic bag pieces, are called microplastics, and are floating in Puget Sound. Every water sample taken in Puget Sound so far by researchers at UW Tacoma have plastic bits.
* Tiny plastics are a pathway for toxic chemicals. Plastics attract toxic chemicals like a sponge. Fish then eat these plastic bits - and we eat the fish.
* Plastics are accumulating in our world’s oceans. The most researched area, so far, is the North Pacific Gyre where a floating thin soup of plastics is in an area that is estimated to be greater than the size of Texas."

For more info about Seattle's proposed ordinance, click here.

Help Support Oregon's Marine Reserves

Banning single-use plastic bags will start the vital process of protecting our ocean from plastic pollution. A related effort in support of our ocean's health is establishing Marine Reserves. Asking Governor Kitzaber to move this goal forward is what this group of letter writers from the Mary’s Peak Group of the Oregon Sierra Club is involved in. These letters can be sent to the office of Governor Kitzhaber before and after the legislative session that starts December 5th. Oregon is the only state on the Pacific Ocean that does not have a marine reserve or a National Marine Sanctuary. We have one of the most beautiful and productive oceans in the world; let's keep it that way. Join us in protecting a small piece of it for the future. Click here, and send that letter today.

City Council Supports Bag Ban 8 - 0

The Bag Monster gears up to meet the City Council

Below is a snippet from today's Gazette-Times story, "Council sends bag ban to committee":

"After hearing nearly an hour of public testimony, the Corvallis City Council on Monday elected to send a proposed ban on single-use plastic bags to its Administrative Services Committee—although some proponents of the ban and at least one councilor said it was a shame the council couldn’t enact the measure on the spot.

The ordinance, which is the brainchild of the Sierra Club’s Marys Peak Group, brought a few dozen people to the noon meeting, and about 10 spoke in front of the council. Testimony was heavily in support of the ordinance with a few opposed.

The council unanimously decided to move the proposed ban to the Administrative Services Committee."

Sounds like our ordinance is moving forward!

Front Page News!

As you may have noticed today in a front page story in the Gazette-Times, Bag It Corvallis is going before the City Council this Monday to present our ordinance to ban single-use plastic carryout bags. To view the full article, click here.
Today we reached a total of 1,168 signatures in support of the ordinance, exceeding our goal of reaching 1,000 before we present the ordinance to the City Council. The Corvallis City Council meets on Monday, Nov. 7 at noon at the downtown fire station, 400 NW Harrison Boulevard. Come join us and show your support!

Bag It Corvallis Makes the News

Candice Ruud at the Gazette-Times interviewed Debra Higbee-Sudyka last week about our effort to ban single-use plastic bags here in Corvallis. The article was published in today's paper and it looks great! Here's a link: Plastic bag ban gets push.

The article outlines some of the details that would make our ordinance more effective than the Portland ban. For instance, the 5-cent fee on paper bags will encourage the use of reusable bags (in Portland, most stores simply saw a huge switch to paper). The article also mentions how different local businesses might react to the ban. Some stores, such as Sibling Revelry, already don't use plastic bags. Others like The Clothes Tree hand out thicker plastic bags which can be used again and again. These thicker plastic bags wouldn't be banned by our ordinance, which targets only thin, single-use plastic bags.

For more info, check out the story, or stop by our screening of Bag It tonight at 6 p.m. at the Corvallis Public Library on Monroe Avenue. Our last screening of the documentary is set for Monday at 6 p.m. at OSU's Kearney Hall, 1491 SW Campus Way.

Bag It Petition Goes Online

So far, we've gathered 599 signatures to support our proposed ordinance banning single-use plastic carryout bags in Corvallis. Now you can sign our petition online, too:

Online Petition by iPetitions.com