Thank You Thursday 11.21.13

For six years, Heal the Bay has organized “A Day Without a Bag” to kick off the holiday season, encouraging people to skip single-use plastic. But this year we proudly celebrated “A Day With a Bag” – a reusable one – to commemorate the City of Los Angeles’ plastic bag ban, which goes into effect Jan. 1. Heal the Bay helped organize the distribution of 8,000 free reusable bags to residents in all corners of L.A. and every council district.

The mobilization wouldn’t have been possible without the assistance of the following groups: The Children’s Nature Institute, Tree People, One Generation, Temple Judea, PAVA, Sun Valley High School, Pacoima Beautiful, St. Raphaels, Augustus Hawkins Nature Park, Challengers Boys and Girls Club, EsoWon Books, Palisades Cares, Boys & Girls Clubs of Venice, CSUN service learning students, Echo Park TAP, LA Beautification Team, Urban Semillas, Punk Rock Marthas, Cathy Beauregard and a group of UCLA students. More information about all of these terrific partners can be found through our distribution site map.

Inland cleanups help beautify a community and educate about the connection between urban areas to the east and the Santa Monica Bay. We also salute JingTian Ye, president and founder of the Bottles for the Bay Foundation in Rowland Heights, who understands that connection and generously purchased three cases of heavy-duty bags for use at our inland cleanups.