UCLA Student March Against Plastic Bags

On Saturday afternoon, April 20, student activists at UCLA hosted a beach cleanup to celebrate Earth Day, and demonstrate support for banning plastic carryout bags in

grocery stores. CALPIRG Students, a student run advocacy group at UCLA, are supporting an effort in the California Legislature to protect our Environment. In 2014, the first plastic grocery

bag ban in the country was passed in California. However, this policy has a loophole which allows a thicker type of plastic bags to still be given out, making it ineffective. In fact, by weight,

pollution from plastic bags in California has increased in the past decade. Student's gathered to raise awareness for Senators Allen and Blakespear's SB1053, and Assemblymember Bauer

Kahan's AB 2236 which would close a current loophole in the law, ceasing the mass production of plastic grocery bags once and for all.

In In honor of Earth Day, UCLA Student volunteers met at Santa Monica beach, and collected over 4000 pieces of trash. Students found lots of plastic waste at the beach, including plastic straws, bottle caps, Styrofoam, and of course, plastic bags. One student even found a bag with the word "reusable" still clearly visible, highlighting that these plastic bags are not being reused, or even recycled, and are instead polluting our environment. CALPIRG State Director, Jenn Engstom, spoke to student volunteers to encourage their efforts to clean the beach, and continue to advocate for a plastic-free future. Students hope that their legislative efforts will be successful, and in the future there will be no more plastic bags to be found at California's beaches.