The Alameda County Waste Management Authority’s single-use plastic bag ban went into effect on January 1, 2013. In response, the Clean Water Program (www.cleanwaterprogram.org) provided stylish reusable bags for give-away events staged all around the County over the past couple weeks. At the Emeryville Pak N Save, the Friday before the Super Bowl, 230 of these reusable bags just about flew off our table. To say the bags were well-received is an understatement! Chinook Book also donated 120 of their popular sustainable product coupon books to give away to customers (normally a $20 value!). Encouraging shoppers to use reusable bags is one way to reduce litter that harms wildlife, clogs storm drains and just looks bad. Each year, the equivalent of 100,000 kitchen garbage bags worth of litter end up in our local waterways, including an estimated 1 million disposable plastic bags. In Alameda County storm water does not pass through a water treatment plant. This means that litter and other pollutants carried into the storm drain system by wind and water flow directly into creeks and the Bay, where they harm fish, marine mammals and birds. Plastic bags and other lightweight plastic litter don’t biodegrade and are particularly hazardous