Tomorrow night, January 13, 2009, Santa Monica's City Council will hopefullyvote to adopt an ordinance to ban plastic single-use bags in all of the city's retail establishments.

Heal the Bay supporters can help by showing your support for this ordinance to ensure it ispassed by the City Council.  It's a chance for grassroots action and civic engagement at a very local and personal level, if you live or own a business in Santa Monica.

It's been almost a year since the City Council first voted to direct Santa Monica staff to draft an ordinanceaddressing single-use bags. Now, that draft ordinance is being presented and, as with the hearing in February where we advocated the City to pursue this effort, we now need to hear from community voices to move this  important proposal forward.

The bottom line is that we simply can't recycle our way out of this problem -- remember, the saying is Reduce. Reuse. Recycle -- and the most effective way to solve our marine debris problem is to stop the trash from being generated.

So, help stop the plastic pollution that is choking our oceans and littering our streets and beaches, come out to the hearing on Tuesday.  To join us, sign up on our phone list.