The City of Long Beach is joining Los Angeles County in the Brag About Your Bag campaign, which begins on Tuesday, November 10, 2009. The goal of Brag About Your Bag is to encourage shoppers and businesses to forego use of single-use bags in favor of reusable bags, and to reduce their reliance on harmful products. 

The Brag About Your Bag campaign will culminate on Thursday, December 17, 2009, which is the annual Day Without A Bag, coordinated by Heal the Bay on the third Thursday in December with similar goals. 

Sixty cities and environmental organizations will join the County in the Brag About Your Bag campaign, which kicks off on Tuesday, November 10 with an environmental fair at the Civic Center Mall, 500 West Temple St., Los Angeles.

Each weekend until December 17, the Brag About Your Bag campaign will visit participating Albertsons, Ralphs, HOWS, Top Valu Market and Valu Plus Food Warehouse supermarkets throughout the County.  At each location, residents who bring in five plastic bags for recycling will receive a free reusable bag in exchange. Residents are also encouraged to avoid getting more bags then they need and to dispose of bags properly.

Californians use 19 billion plastic bags annually, or roughly 552 bags per person.  To promote a litter-free city, the City of Long Beach is asking residents to use reusable bags instead of the single-use bags.  The Brag About Your Bag campaign is part of the City's continuing educational programs to raise environmental awareness, conserve natural resources, and encourage reusable bags.

Using reusable bags reduces litter, preserves landfill space and creates less CO2 emissions.  Single-use plastic bags are a tremendous source of litter because they blow along our streets and beaches and marinas, and clog storm drains – costing the City of Long Beach hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in operational and clean-up costs.

Did You Know?

Only 5 percent of single-use plastic bags are recycled, and more than 600 plastic bags are thrown away per second.

If Californians cut their single-use plastic bag waste in half, it would save more than 800,000 barrels of oil and keep 73,000 tons of trash out of our landfills each year.  



Visit our Partners:
For more information or for participating locations, visit  For more information about the City of Long Beach’s recycling efforts, visit

bragaboutyourbag.com

longbeach-recycles.org