Anonymous,

We need all hands on deck: California is on the verge of passing legislation that could be a giant leap toward moving beyond harmful single-use plastics, and our partner group CALPIRG needs our help.

Together with our national network, we're pulling out all the stops to help our partner group, CALPIRG, pass the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act before the end of California's legislative session on Sept. 13.1 But in order to convince the California Legislature to take this monumental step, we need your help.

Donate today to support our national network's efforts to move California and the rest of our country beyond plastic, and all of our other work.

With this bill in California, we have the chance to make a giant impact for our entire country. Here's how:

• The act will establish state targets to reduce the largest sources of single-use plastic and packaging waste by 75 percent by 2030 through a gradual phase-out of non-recyclable plastics. So foam containers, plastic wrappers and more plastics we don't need may be de facto banned.
• This bill would require companies to use more recyclable materials for their products sold in California. Doing so could change major companies' entire supply chains.

This is the most ambitious plastics reduction bill moving anywhere right now. And since California is the fifth-largest economy in the world, it's almost certain this legislation will be felt across the country.2

But in order for any of this to happen, California needs to pass the legislation -- and we only have until Sept. 13 to make that happen. Donate today to support our national network's efforts to pass this bill in California, and all of our other work to stand up for the public interest and protect our future.

Scientists are constantly finding plastic where it's not supposed to be -- from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to the highest peaks of the Pyrenees Mountains.3 And a recent study found that each of us is likely ingesting a credit card's worth of plastic particles every single week.4

Most of these microscopic plastic pieces -- some smaller than the diameter of a strand of hair -- actually started out as plastic bottles or takeout containers that were thrown away. And these pieces will stick around long after their original items have served their purpose, polluting our future and threatening our health for hundreds of years.5

It's clear that we need to take bold action to move our states and our country beyond plastic. This legislation in California could be a significant move in the right direction.

The California state Legislature could spark larger change across the country -- if we can pass this bill before the end of the legislative session on Sept. 13.

Of course we're still working to stand up for the public interest by banning Roundup, working to protect our life-saving antibiotics, and more. But right now, we are asking for your special support.

U.S. PIRG and our national network are pulling together to help CALPIRG get this legislation across the finish line before the Sept. 13 deadline. We need your support for this and all of our other work. Donate today.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. Emily Rusch, "90% of Californians think single-use plastic is unbearable," CALPIRG, August 21, 2019.
2. Benjy Egel, "California now world's fifth-largest economy, bigger than Britain," The Sacramento Bee, May 4, 2018.
3. Sarah Gibbens, "Plastic Bag Found at the Bottom of World's Deepest Ocean Trench," National Geographic, May 11, 2018.
4. Isabelle Gerretsen, "You could be swallowing a credit card's weight in plastic every week," CNN, June 17, 2019.
5. Michael Corkery, "A Giant Factory Rises to Make a Product Filling Up the World: Plastic," The New York Times, August 12, 2019.