Focus on Arts and Ecology

Dear Jon,

The United States is the world's worst plastic polluter.

We generate approximately 42 million metric tons of plastic waste every year. That's the equivalent of 286 pounds for every person in America.1

We're championing a proven approach and applying it to our plastic waste problem: producer responsibility. Producer responsibility legislation requires the companies making plastic to shoulder the costs of recycling and waste disposal programs in their state.2

Send a message to our governor urging them to support producer responsibility in California.

Much of the plastic waste the U.S. produces is washed into rivers, streams and oceans. This isn't just unsightly; it's unhealthy.

Plastic pollutants can seep into the water we drink and the seafood we eat. Certain chemicals found in plastic pollutants can disrupt endocrine systems, interfere with brain development, and cause cancer and birth defects.3

Producer responsibility legislation can create a different reality. If plastic producers have to pay to clean up their single-use plastic pollution, they'll start to make more durable, more recyclable, less wasteful products. That means less plastic pollution making its way to our landfills, communities and oceans.4

So far, our national network has helped pass producer responsibility bills in Maine and Oregon. Will you help us ensure that California is among the next?

Call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to take action against plastic pollution.

Thank you for all you do,

Jenn Engstrom
State Director

1. Oliver Milman, "'Deluge of plastic waste': US is world's biggest plastic polluter," The Guardian, December 1, 2021.
2. "Fact Sheet: Extended Producer Responsibility," OECD, last accessed December 26, 2021.
3. Elizabeth Royte, "We Know Plastic Is Harming Marine Life. What About Us?," National Geographic, June 2018.
4. Alana Semuels, "To Fix America's Broken Recycling System, States Want Companies to Foot the Bill," TIME, February 26, 2020.

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