Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags In Santa Monica

Team Marine is a group of students at Santa Monica High School who are fighting to save our environment!

We need to once and for all ban single-use plastic bags in Santa Monica. Our oceans are suffering at the hands of this throw-away society. We need to protect this incredible resource for future generations. Single-use plastic has become more abundant than plankton outweighing it 6:1. The sea has become a plastic soup killing millions of animals and hurting our economy.
This does not have to continue! We can fight this by banning single-use plastic bags in Santa Monica and switching to reusable bags!

Facts:
In  the United States alone 100 billion single-use plastic bags are thrown away with less than 5% getting recycled.

Plastic bags were the most common plastic item found in the digestive tract of 408 leatherback sea turtles according to a 2009 study that reviewed historical necropsies

The energy used to make about 9 plastic bags is equivalent to the energy it takes to drive a car one kilometer, or 0.62 miles.

Plastic litters our beaches, exacts a toll on our environment, and costs cities money to clean up. It is a threat to all ocean-dependent, tourism-oriented economies. California%u2019s ocean economy alone is valued at $43 billion.

Currently, 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species, and 43% of all marine mammal species, have had reported problems of entanglement or ingestion of marine debris.

The annual cost to clean Los Angeles County%u2019s 31 miles of coastline is over $4 million.

This is a petition to show the City of Santa Monica that the people support the ban on single-use plastic bags.