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John,

You get some food to go, and the restaurant gives you a plastic foam takeout container. You enjoy the meal, and then you throw out the plastic foam container.

Since it's plastic, it's hard to recycle, so it gets sent to a landfill. A strong wind sweeps it off the pile of trash, into a nearby forest. Another storm blows it into a stream, which carries it into the ocean, where it will sit for hundreds of years.

In the year 2525, that plastic foam container will probably still be there. What will it take to make that plastic pollution the exception, rather than the rule, in the forests and oceans of the future?

As a PIRG supporter, you know that our actions today help determine the quality of life in the world of tomorrow.

Together, our staff and members are working together to create a future where we use quality materials over and over again, and where the mountains of waste we see today have become a thing of the past.

That's the power of making a positive difference every day, with people like you taking one action after another to slowly but surely chip away at the plastic waste problem.

It's a simple but effective approach: Study the problem. Identify common-sense, common-ground solutions. Rally the public's support for those changes.

Starting with the worst single-use plastics, like plastic checkout bags and foam containers, we're working to reduce single-use plastic as close as we can get to zero.

We're encouraging grocery stores and other companies to reduce plastic packaging, much of which is unnecessary, for the products they sell.

We're working to require companies to pay the cost of recycling and disposal of their packaging, reducing the burden on our communities and giving the companies an incentive to reduce, reuse and recycle.

PIRG is backed by a dedicated team of researchers and tens of thousands of motivated supporters like you. It's a potent combination, and it shows in the real-world progress we've made, together.

You've helped to:

* Convince major brands and retailers to reduce their plastic waste: Costco, Disney, hotel brands Marriott and Hilton, toymakers Hasbro and Mattel, and shipping mega-corporation Amazon, have committed to be more transparent and sustainable about their single-use plastic use. Supporters like you helped exert pressure on these companies to cut back their plastic usage, and it worked. We're following up on these commitments to make sure each promise is met.[1,2]



* Keep microplastic out of waterways: PIRG supporters and volunteers are conducting plastic pellet "hunts" to help us show the impact this pollution is having on our waterways. These actions help build momentum for legislative action to stop the dumping of plastic nurdles into waterways.[3]



* Pass plastic pollution reduction laws: State to state, our national network of PIRG supporters have helped push for important changes that help preserve truth in recycling labels, hold plastic producers accountable for the waste their products become, and ban some of the worst single-use plastics like foam containers, plastic bags and straws. Already, 13 states have some kind of restriction on wasteful single-use plastics and five have producer responsibility laws for packaging. Let's do the same in more places.[4]



Imagine a world where plastic doesn't accumulate in the garbage after every shopping trip. Or a world where we don't feel guilt about our excessive plastic use, because our lives naturally have less plastic in them. A world where companies have to think about our health and environment when making decisions about how they are packaging products.

That's what we're working for. And with your continued support, the next big win could be just around the corner.

Thank you for your support,

Faye Park
President

P.S. Supporter donations help fund our efforts to move our country beyond plastic. Will you donate today to help keep our work going strong?
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1. Celeste Meiffren-Swango and Mark Morgenstein, "RELEASE: Big brands are reducing their plastic usage," U.S. PIRG, April 25, 2024.
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2. "Too much plastic: Why Amazon's packaging needs to change," PIRG, February 17, 2025.
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3. "Support for the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act is growing," U.S. PIRG, May 8, 2024.
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4. "Reducing plastic waste in the states," PIRG, July 26, 2022.
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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 toxic pesticides 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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U.S. PIRG
Main Office: 1543 Wazee St., Suite 460, Denver, CO 80202, (303) 801-0582
Federal Advocacy Office: 600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, 4th Fl., Washington, DC 20003, (202) 546-9707
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