Join our Bring Your Own Bag Nassau Campaign to eliminate Single Use plastic and the pollution it creates in Nassau County, NY.

Residents of Nassau County discard 450,000,000 (450 Million) single-use checkout bags into our environment EVERY YEAR.

Americans use 190,000 plastic bags every minute(*Wall Street Journal=100 Billion bags per year). These are single-use disposable bags that we mindlessly throw away. But where is “away?”


When you realize that the average use-life of a single use plastic bag is just 12 minutes of "convenience", and it will then remain in the environment everafter, you see we have an obligation to recognize we've made a mistake as a society, stop doing it , and change.

Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to our environment, marine life and human health?

They are polluting our open spaces, our waterways, our storm drains; costing our municipalities to deal with this unnecessary waste, and harming wildlife in the process.


How do we change?


The fact is: It's actually easy. Switch to reusable bags. One reusable bag eliminates 1000 plastic bags!

Support our campaign to make plastic and other single-use checkout bag pollution a thing of the past.

Donate

our teams

(click the team links to sign the petition, donate to the campaign, or volunteer)

Sea Cliff

Groovy Solutions to Keep Sea Cliff weird.. and beautiful.

Lynbrook

Keep Lynbrook Beautiful and protect our environment

Rockville Centre

BYO Bag RVC: Our Community comes together.

THE ISSUES

Single-use Disposables Go Where?

Water bottles, coffee cups, plastic utensils and take out containers make our lives more convenient. About 2,480,000 tons of plastic bottles and jars were disposed of in 2008 around the world. Unfortunately, plastic is not disposable and the use of these items leads to environmental degradation. When the plastics break down, they do not biodegrade. Instead they break down into fragments that contaminate our natural resources.

Ocean & Marine Health

Plastic debris in the ocean doesn't biodegrade. It photodegrades, meaning sunlight and water break it down to smaller and smaller pieces that are mistaken for food by fish, sea birds and marine mammals. More than 260 species of marine animals are affected by plastic debris in the ocean, either by ingestion or entanglement. Laysan Albatross, sea turtles, monk seals, whales and many species of fish have been found with large amounts of plastic in their stomachs.

Climate and fossil fuels

In the United States alone, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil is used annually to make the plastic bags that Americans consume. Their manufacture, transportation and disposal require large quantities of non-renewable resources and release equally large amounts of global-warming gases.

Human Health Impacts

There are many dangers involved with bisphenol A and phthalates, two additives commonly used in plastic. BPA makes plastic hard and phthalates make plastic soft. Both are known endocrine disruptors. We all come into contact with these toxic chemicals through our food, personal care products and plastic containers. Plastics are turning up in our food... from sea salt to seafood that ingest plastics that are laden with chemicals. Those chemicals stay in their bodies, which we then eat, entering our food chain.

Waste, Sanitation, & Landfills

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American produces about 4.4 lbs. of garbage every day. That’s 29 lbs. per week or 1,600 lbs. per year. Much ends up buried in a landfill where it breaks down, releasing methane. Once methane is released into the air, it becomes a super-potent green house gas. And then there is the toxic leachate, or liquid that seeps and drains from a landfill, that ends up in our aquifers.

Recycling alone is not enough

The United States International Trade Commission reported that 102 billion plastic bags were used in the U.S. in 2009. The best estimates say only about 9% are recycled. Even when properly disposed of, they are easily windblown and often end up in waterways or on the landscape, becoming eyesores and degrading soil and water quality as they break down into toxic bits.

what you Can Do

There is much you can do. Get involved. Attend our events and meetings. Sign up for email alerts.

Come to our events or help us arrange a sceening of the movie "Bag It" with your group.

You can:

what to expect

Opposition

The transition from single-use to reusable can be hard at first — you may find some neighbors, friends, or retailers reluctant to change. Others might try to stop the movement altogether. It's helpful to remember there are reasonable objections and questions to bans vs. fees or recycling programs — it's important to hear out others' ideas but to also persevere. Ultimately, once old habits are replaced, consumers are happy and proud to tote their goods responsibly.

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Solutions

As a movement, we MUST present SOLUTIONS to eliminating single-use plastic and other check out bags.

To that end, we will work with local merchants and shoppers to provide solutions and suggest alternatives to make the transition easier for those who might think it is too difficult. Using a community-building approach will provide a sense of local pride that our community could make such a dramatic change for the better... TOGETHER.

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Outcomes

Since 1 reusable bag eliminates the need for 1000 plastic bags, lets make our goal to get as many out and available as possible.

So far, in the locales that have such a law, not a single person has died from not receiving a free(subsidized) plastic bag upon check out.

Their community is cleaner and healthier for it, and costs are reduced for consumers, businesses, and government.

Information courtesy Wall Street Journal, Bag It, Town of Huntington Bring Your Own Bag Initiative, Brookhaven Single Stream Recycling Policy