John,

The idea behind PIRG's Earth Day Giving Drive is that by rallying together today in support of concrete, commonsense solutions to plastic pollution and other threats to our environment, we can convince decision-makers to put those solutions into action.

John, with just hours left before the midnight deadline, we need your support to help turn the tide on the plastic waste crisis and win a healthier future for our planet.

Will you make an Earth Day gift right now? When you do, your gift will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $15,000 nationwide.

Did you know that 99% of all plastic is made from fossil fuels? By 2050, the plastics industry will generate as much greenhouse gas pollution as over 600 coal-fired power plants.1

And that's to say nothing of the plastic waste that piles up in landfills, washes into our rivers and oceans, and breaks down into tiny plastic particles that can end up in the air we breathe.

It's long past time to turn off the tap on the production of all this plastic, starting with the single-use, throwaway items we can all live without. The problem is, while concerned citizens like you and me want a future with less single-use plastic polluting our communities, the corporations producing and selling all this plastic are proving harder to convince.

Here's a snapshot of some of the ways we're working to break through our country's addiction to plastic and stop this harmful pollution at the source:

• Convincing major brands to reduce their plastic use. You've probably taken note before of all the unnecessary plastic packaging that arrives in that package you ordered online, or that you encounter at the grocery store. Then there's Sysco, the world's largest food distributor, who's plastic waste footprint is harder to see -- but no less damaging.2 Donate to help win strong plastic-reduction commitments from Amazon, Costco, Sysco and more.

• Winning truth in recycling. Even if a plastic container has the familiar chasing arrows recycling symbol on it, it might not actually be recyclable at all. Shouldn't we be able to trust that products labeled as "recyclable" can actually be recycled? Donate to help win action stopping companies from falsely advertising their products as recyclable.

• Making plastic producers responsible for their mess. Ultimately, the companies flooding our lives with single-use plastics should be made to pay into efforts to clean up the waste their products become, incentivizing them to make less plastic in the first place. "Producer responsibility" legislation is our best shot at making that happen -- and supporters like you are helping win huge progress toward making producer responsibility the law of the land. Donate to help keep the momentum going for this critical policy.

These efforts, though, are up against powerful opposition.

And there are a host of other environmental threats putting our health and the health of our planet at risk -- toxic pesticides, climate-warming fossil fuel pollution, and a rapidly growing electronic waste problem, just to name a few.

But time and again, PIRG and our supporters have shown that sustained, grassroots public interest advocacy can win the day. Thanks in large part to our work, 1 in 3 Americans now lives in a state with a robust ban on at least one type of single-use plastic.3 In the past year, our national network led the charge to pass a producer responsibility law in Colorado, and an important truth in recycling law in California.

John, our Earth Day Giving Drive ends at midnight tonight, and we need your help to reach our goal. Donate right now and your gift will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $15,000 nationwide.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. Sandra Laville, "Single-use plastics a serious climate change hazard, study warns," The Guardian, May 15, 2019.
2. Matt Casale, "It's time for Sysco to move beyond single-use plastic," PIRG, February 16, 2023.
3. "Trash in America," U.S. PIRG Education Fund, September 28, 2021.

Your donation will power our dedicated staff of organizers, policy experts and attorneys who drive all of our campaigns in the public interest, from banning Roundup and moving us beyond plastic, to saving our antibiotics and being your consumer watchdog, to protecting our environment and our democracy. None of our work would be possible without the support of people just like you.

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