Keep Plastic out of Puget Sound

Marine life in danger

Plastic pollution is a growing problem for Puget Sound and the marine wildlife that inhabit it.  In 2010, there was a beached gray whale found in West Seattle with 20 plastic bags in its stomach.

Puget Sound is an icon of Western Washington and home to a diverse host of marine wildlife.  Orcas and other whales, sea otter, sea turtles and a wide variety of birds are just a few examples of the life that are affected by plastic pollution.  Plastic bags can be fatal to marine wildlife; they can ingest them, choke on them or be harmed by the toxins in the plastic. 

Washington uses more than 2 billion plastic bags, and less than 5% of plastic bags are recycled.  That means that too many of these bags are making their way into the Sound. 

Of course, the companies that make and sell 2 billion bags to Washington State are fighting to maintain the status quo, fronted by the lobbying team from the American Chemistry Council. The ACC spent a whopping $1.4 million in 2009 to defeat an ordinance that would have put a fee on plastic bags in Seattle.  But we need to do what is best for Puget Sound marine wildlife.

With your help, we can stop the flow of trash and begin the cleanup.

The first thing to do when your bathtub is overflowing is to turn the water off: It is time to turn the trash faucet off so we can start the clean up.

The solution is simple: we need to ban plastic bags. Nothing we use for a few minutes should pollute our oceans for hundreds of years.

Washingtonians know this, and are taking action to protect the Sound. In 2011, four Washington cities voted to ban plastic bags - Bellingham, Edmonds, Mukilteo, and thanks in part to our work Seattle voted unanimously to ban plastic bags in December!  Plastic bag bans are on the table in Bellevue, Bainbridge Island, and Olympia.

We can ban plastic bags statewide and be the first state in the country to do it. 

You can help by contacting your state representative and ask him or her to ban plastic bags in Washington.