Friend,

Imagine the kind of planet you want to leave behind for future generations to inherit.

Is it one that's covered in so much unnecessary single-use plastic waste that it's earned the title "planet plastic"? Or is it one that has adopted the policies necessary to stem the tide of plastic pollution?

This Earth Day, we're working to ensure that, whether it's 10, 20 or 50 years from now, our grandkids can celebrate a planet that has successfully solved the plastic waste crisis.

We've set a goal of raising $30,000 by April 22 to move our country beyond plastic. Make your Earth Day Giving Drive gift today to support our work.

Over the past 70 years, plastic has become the backbone of America's throwaway culture. It holds our frozen meals, transports our beverages, and invades our homes in the form of packaging anytime we order something online.

In fact, from the time we wake up in the morning until the time we go to bed, Americans produce enough plastic to fill the Dallas Cowboys football stadium -- the largest stadium in America -- to the brim with waste.1

And there's no sign that plastic production or consumption is slowing down. More than half of the plastic currently on Earth has been produced in just the last 20 years. Even worse, we're on track to double the rate of plastic pollution by 2030.2

The good news is that momentum is building to tackle our plastic waste crisis, and we can't afford to let it pass us by. In just the past year, we helped lead the charge to ban some of the worst single-use plastics in Colorado, Washington and Virginia. We also helped pass the first producer responsibility laws in the country, in Oregon and Maine, and an important new truthful recycling law in California. We need to double down on winning a future that's free from plastic waste and pollution.

Will you join our campaign to move our country beyond plastic? Donate to our Earth Day Giving Drive today.

We know what it takes to win tangible change to create cleaner, healthier communities. Our network has helped 30 states introduce legislation that would ban some kind of single-use plastic. We even helped California pass the country's first statewide plastic bag ban back in 2016.3

We also know that there isn't just one solution to our plastic problem. That's why we're calling on companies, including Whole Foods and Amazon, to take unnecessary single-use plastic packaging off their shelves, and we're campaigning for major plastic producers to take financial responsibility for the waste their products become.

We have the technology and knowledge to move our country beyond plastic -- to conserve natural resources and energy, to cut pollution, and to protect our health, environment and future. Now is the time to commit to making a zero-waste America a reality.

Make your Earth Day gift now to support our work to achieve a zero-waste future.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. "Trash in America," Frontier Group, U.S. PIRG Education Fund, and Environment America Research and Policy Center, September 30, 2021.
2. Tim Dickinson, "How big oil and big soda kept a global environmental calamity a secret," Rolling Stone, March 3, 2020.
3. "Beyond Plastic," U.S. PIRG, last accessed April 12, 2022.

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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