Governor Quinn: Don't let big plastic bully me!
That is how 12-year-old Abby Goldberg of Grayslake titled her online petition against plastic bags. As of June 30, the petition has collected 152,376 signatures from around the country. And the numbers keep growing.
The petition states: "Once again, big corporations are trying to use big government to control the rights of citizens in towns all over America, but this time you can help me stop it!"
It continues to talk about how she wanted to get a ban of plastic bags approved for her hometown, but then faced a bigger fight: "My friends and I were making great progress, until the oil and chemical industry pulled a dirty trick to kill my campaign; these lobbyists used the politicians that they bought to pass a bill that would make it illegal for towns across Illinois to create plastic bag bans! Even worse, they’re trying to make it look like a green environmental bill, by putting in a few ridiculously low requirements for so-called “recycling” of plastic bags, and are bragging they’re going to make it "a model bill for all states!”
Goldberg said the issue is about the bags, and big government.
"It's about small towns trying to say what they want to do," she said. "The plastic bags are really bad for the environment. I chose to try to get plastic bags banned in my town. This bill would stop that."
The elementary school activist at in Grayslake said she is excited by the response to her campaign at http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-quinn-don-t-let-big-plastic-bully-me.
"I'm so surprised," Goldberg said. "It makes me feel great because I know that my efforts have really made an impact. No matter how old you are, you can still do good things if you put your mind to it."
The Fate of the Bill
Change.org stated that SB 3442 has passed both the Illinois House and the Illinois Senate and would make it illegal for towns across Illinois to create plastic bag bans.
The bill is now on Quinn’s desk. He has not indicated whether he plans to sign the bill so Goldberg is mobilizing support to urge him to veto the measure.
“Kids and adults like me are standing up to big oil and big plastic, creating bans everywhere, including in Los Angeles, Hawaii, Seattle, Austin, and more. Communities should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to ban single-use plastic bags, including here in Illinois,” Goldberg stated.
Supporters of SB 3442 have said that they hope this can be model legislation for other states, which could effectively limit the ability of communities nationwide to pass bans on plastic bags.
Social Media Activism
“Young people like Abby Goldberg are using Change.org to level the playing field against big companies and big lobbyists,” stated Mike Jones, deputy campaign director at Change.org.
"This has become one of our most popular petitions," he said. "This is an issue that certainly engages people. It attracts people who are concerned about the environmental impacts of plastic bags, and others who care about government not being able to tell people what to do."
Change.org is a platform for petitions about almost anything. Jones said they have nearly 15 million users overall from throughout the United States and in 10 countries around the world.
"In general, there are about 10,000 petitions started on change.org per month," Jones said. "Several stay small. Abby's is one of the ones that really hit a nerve."
Live signature totals from Abby Goldberg’s campaign:
http://www.change.org/bigplastic
Wake up. This is about a corporate special interest with no local power using their bought buddies in big government to control local government. If this were called the XYZ Control Act, written by the XYZ lobby group, and the bill slipped in "By the way, your town can never ban XYZ product, no matter the reason, no matter how bad you know it is for your town or how much it costs your town to deal with our product or what your citizens want," then ask yourself if you'd support it. If you say you would, you're either not being honest with yourself, with me, or you work for the plastics industry. This is not about recycling. Framing it as such is falling for a trick by the plastics industry to misguide you into discussing the wrong topic. Why this isn't written for Bob: Studies show that people like Cindy can be reasoned with, and trolls like Bob who mastered the ability to hate and use caps, but have not mastered reason, civility and thinking outside his own preconceptions cannot, so Bobby, you are disregarded.
It's great to argue about whether plastic bags can be truly recycled -- they can't in 99% of the cases, only downcycled -- or whether our dwindling supply of fossil fuels should be used for the convenience of making the lives of people like Bob easier to procreate, or whether we should destroy our ecosystems and future in order to grow our economy by consuming, consuming finite resources, feeling good about recycling here and there so that we make the party last another decade or two, at the cost of EVERYTHING.... This is about your town being to what to do. If you fall for their rhetoric, you lose, I lose, they win. It's so insanely obvious.
1. Yes, paper bags are in some way as bad and even much worse for the environment -- at the factory. That's why bag bans typically come with a discouragement fee of using those too. HOWEVER, plastic is a bigger problem. It's a non-renewable resource, leaving a product that never goes away, leaves potentially toxic chemicals in our bodies forever, just by handling them, and helps destroy our oceans. Remember that place we get our oxygen from? Yeah, the oceans. Paper is degradable. Paper is renewable. Paper is more easily recycled. Paper is not refused by recycling centers, as the vast majority of plastic bags are by the vast majority of recycling centers. Think beyond the alarmist bell.
Stuff that leaks, like fresh meat, or is moist, like frozen food just doesn't work well in paper, and I'd never put raw meat in reusable bags.
SO why bother spending extra money to buy all the recycle containers if the stuff in them doesn't get recycled?
Regarding taxing bags or banning freedom or whatever, think for a second about it this way: the clean up costs for your "freedom bag" are huge and largely fruitless. That's paid for by your government, and then people complain that they're borrowing too much to run your government for you, but you won't let them raise taxes so... essentially you're crapping all over your city, allowing people less considerate than you are to crap more carelessly, spreading stink, then banning your fellow citizens from trying to clean up your mess, then when money's tight, voting against paying your fair share. If these points don't ring true to you, there's really nothing anyone can say. When it comes to resources and the environment, it is not cut as cut and dry as stupid marriage bans, pot bans, etc. Thanks
Fact: Bans on plastic bags and fees for using paper -- definitely bad for the environment as well -- reduce their use by up to 95% within a few weeks. Think about that compared to the 2 to 3% decrease created by bring-your-own-bag awareness campaigns. I believe in education -- which is why I'm posting on here -- but I'm very aware that my beliefs don't matter much. Sadly, only the numbers count when it comes to change :) Education on this issue does NOT work. Studies show that when bags get banned, people get mad, then after 3 months don't care. Eventually they wonder why the hell they ever used them in the first place. Looking at the big picture, and even the medium picture, all that energy and resources to create something to be used just once or a few times... it's really insane. Always look at who's funding the bill, and who's funding the sponsors, and you'll get your answer as to who the bill is really for. That's why Abby's story is so great -- she's a kid who wants community choice. She's out in the open about why she wants it, and people see and support that. Thanks TriMommy!
Unfortunately, not enough people do what you do to address this enormous, unprecedented problem, and even if they did, it's not enough. It just pushes our problem back a few years. Even if you reduced your plastic bag use by 90%, that'd still just delay the problem.
Here in Santa Monica California we banned plastic bags & added a paper bag fee, but not without significant pushback from the petrochemical lobbies. It was so important for us as a beachside community, & the irreparable damage plastic particles are having to ocean life. Neighboring Los Angeles, a city as big in population as some countries, is moving forward with a ban modeled after Santa Monica's. Young kids in the school system here helped champion the cause & made a "bag monster" suit from old bags & made appearances at local festivals & city council. The youth have to lead on policy for the future they will live to see, & I hope that your motivation prevails. Build a social movement. Fight. Win. You can do it.
Just what we need a Govt telling us something else we cannot use. I think Gov Quinn better worry about much more pressing things in Illinois like , the State is broke, high taxes etc etc. list goes on.
Besides, why stop at double bagged?
Global cooling was a real concern for a time because in the cycles of natural climate shifts in the historical record, we were considered due for a cooling age by some researchers. However climate models then hadn't developed to account for the effect of our emissions of stored carbon. Instead of a slight cooling, we are now getting incredibly rapid warming that is being borne out in smashed temperature records across the country and across the globe, stronger storms, and more crushing droughts in the Southwest. Going back to thinking in terms of what data was available in the 1970's does not make you ahead of the times. It means you are stuck and incapable of making rational choices on the best information we have available.
There is no science in present day environmentalism. Did you folks know that our grade schools are teaching our children that the earth is running out of water? Not fresh water... water. The quote from a sing on the wall in a local grade school: "Water is going to DISSAPEAR from our earth, so please HELP! ..." Many, many other signs just like it lined the halls. Science is NOT being taught in our schools. Radical environmentalists have taken control, and no one is stopping them.
global wa.. excuse me. man caused climate change is in most of the kid's textbooks now. it probably will be for another hundred years until the scientists' funding starts drying up and they have to switch to 'ice age' alarmism.
http://www.biosphereplastic.com