A message from Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste

Can you help us collect some intelligence this weekend? The plastics industry has deployed signature collectors to bus stops and shopping malls throughout the state in a cynical attempt to overturn California’s plastic bag ban. Early reports tell us that some are disseminating ill-informed, misleading, or downright false information about what the proposed referendum would actually do. We’re trying our best to keep tabs on their campaign mercenaries so we can keep them honest.

Here’s where you come in. Your job, should you choose to accept it, would be to gather intelligence when you encounter these paid-per-signature petitioners:

• Take note of the name of the retail establishment (if any) where the gatherer is set up.
• Please note the approximate location (city & street), as well as date & time.
• What is their pitch? Is it truthful?
• Don’t feel the need to engage/argue. Remember, they are just normal folks being paid to do a job.

This data will help us focus our time and resources where they will do the most good. We’re not afraid of a public vote – Californians will see through the Plastics Industry’s attempt to keep profiting from the billions of cheap plastic bags they dump into California every year. But if they get enough signatures, it would delay implementation of the ban for 18 months. That’s another 18 billion bags’ worth of pollution—and more than $200 million for the plastic bag makers.

You can help us put a stop to it right here, right now, by one of these routes:
Send an email to: Bagban@cawrecycles.org
Text your report to 916-550-3910
Fill out this on-line form.

Thanks for your help!

Mark Murray

Thanks to initial reports coming in over the weekend, we are starting to get a better idea of the scope of Plastics Industry’s signature gathering campaign. But the picture is not complete. We need every useful bit of data that we can get. So don’t forget to report where and when you’ve seen plastic bag signature gatherers in your town. Here are three easy options you can use:

1) report your findings on-line here, 2) or e-mail: bagban@cawrecycles.org, or 3) text us at: 916-550-3910.