Folks From Transition Laguna Spent Saturday Telling Residents to Bag It

Theresa Cordova, Chris Prelitz and Billy Fried of Transition Laguna were on hand Saturday morning to give out free reusable bags to Lagunans to use while shopping at and other local grocery stores. They were asking people to take part in "A Day Without a Bag."

"Locally here in Laguna, the problem with plastic bags is that a lot of them get out to the ocean," said Prelitz, founder of Transition Laguna. "Bags can become what looks like jellyfish, and so aquatic [creatures] eat them. And they are made from plastic, from petroleum, which isn't the best."

Cordova and Prelitz explained that there is something called The Great Pacific Gyre, a circular mass of floating plastic garbage in the northern Pacific Ocean which is estimated to be the size of Texas.

"It's made of our waste plastic," said Prelitz, "that sneaks out there and builds up. The more we can reuse and get away from disposables ... the transition away from disposables, is really important."

"Look out in our oceans," said Fried. "Plastic bags don't degrade. They go out in the ocean and strangle the fish."

Fried explained that Transition Laguna is trying to raise consciousness to ban plastic bags and asked people to take the "simple step" of bringing a bag when going grocery shopping. A plastic bag ban in Laguna Beach will take effect in 2012.

"This is about raising people's awareness [not only about plastic bags]," Cordova said, "but about water conservation, about localization in terms of growing your own food or buying food from local farmers, organic food, the importance of nutrition, the importance of topsoil and the importance of coming together as community for a more sustainable future."