Friend,

This Earth Day, we're in the middle of a plastic waste crisis. The United States alone generates a staggering 42 million metric tons of plastic waste every single year, making us the world's biggest plastic polluter.1

You'll hear a lot today about personal actions we can take for the environment -- and those matter -- but if we're going to move our country beyond plastic, we need corporations to do their part, too.

That's why, when you donate to PIRG before midnight tonight, generous donors will match your gift dollar for dollar, up to $10,000 nationwide. Double your impact by donating now.

PIRG has decades of experience standing up for the public interest, and we know that we have what it takes to tackle a challenge as big as the plastic waste crisis. With your help, here's how we're going to get it done:

• Calling on major retailers, including Amazon, Whole Foods and Costco, to get rid of unnecessary single-use plastic packaging. Just last month, we helped convince Coca-Cola to commit to an important first step in reducing its plastic waste.2
• Working to ban some of the worst single-use plastics at the state level, and to hold companies responsible for the waste their products are designed to become. 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.
• Building support for federal action to tackle the plastic waste crisis, including the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. Our national network has mobilized activists to send nearly 35,000 messages to Congress to support getting single-use plastic out of our national parks.

But these campaigns will take resources to win, and we can't do it without your help.

Will you make your matched Earth Day donation today?

Thank you for your support,

Faye Park
President

1. Oliver Milman, "'Deluge of plastic waste': US is world's biggest plastic polluter," The Guardian, December 1, 2021.
2. "Consumer, environmental advocates welcome Coca-Cola's Commitment to Reuse," U.S. PIRG, February 10, 2022.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: U.S. PIRG <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Apr 21, 2022
Subject: Double your impact to put our planet over plastic this Earth Day
To: Friend <[email protected]>

Friend,

We're in the midst of a growing plastic waste crisis -- both across the country and around the globe. One report estimates that the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways is on track to double by 2030.1

The United States alone generates a staggering 42 million metric tons of plastic waste every single year, making us the world's biggest plastic polluter.2

It's time for new solutions, and a renewed commitment to fight our plastic waste crisis. This Earth Day, you'll hear a lot about personal actions we can take for the environment -- and those matter -- but we need corporations to do their part, too.

PIRG is doubling down on our campaigns to move our country beyond plastic, and to hold plastic producers accountable for the pollution their products become. That's why generous donors will match your gift to our Earth Day Giving Drive, dollar for dollar, up to $10,000 nationwide -- but only until midnight tomorrow. Donate now.

Plastic is becoming harder and harder to avoid, and even worse, so much of it is unnecessary and designed to be used just once and thrown away. Even when we put it in the right bin, that's no guarantee it will be recycled -- in fact, most plastic isn't.3

Every part of that process needs to change -- and that means getting rid of the single-use plastics we just don't need, and getting corporations to take responsibility for the waste their products are designed to become. In fact, just 20 companies are responsible for producing over half of all single-use plastic in the world.4

PIRG has decades of experience standing up for the public interest, and we know that we have what it takes to tackle a challenge as big as the plastic waste crisis. With your help, here's how we're going to get it done:

• Calling on major retailers, including Amazon, Whole Foods and Costco, to get rid of unnecessary single-use plastic packaging. Just last month, we helped convince Coca-Cola to commit to an important first step in reducing its plastic waste.5
• Working to ban some of the worst single-use plastics in states across the country, and to hold companies responsible for the waste their products become. 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.
• Building support for federal action to tackle the plastic waste crisis, including the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, and getting single-use plastic out of our national parks.

But these campaigns will take resources to win, and we can't do it without your help. Will you make your Earth Day donation today?

When you do, generous donors will match your gift dollar for dollar, up to $10,000 nationwide -- but only until midnight tomorrow.

Thank you for helping us put our planet over plastic,

Faye Park
President

1. "Plastic pollution on course to double by 2030," UN News, October 21, 2021.
2. Oliver Milman, "'Deluge of plastic waste': US is world's biggest plastic polluter," The Guardian, December 1, 2021.
3. "Plastics: Material-Specific Data," Environmental Protection Agency, last accessed March 30, 2022.
4. Sandra Laville, "Twenty firms produce 55% of world's plastic waste, report reveals," The Guardian, May 17, 2021.
5. "Consumer, environmental advocates welcome Coca-Cola's Commitment to Reuse," U.S. PIRG, February 10, 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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