Tell Arnold to sign AB 258!

AB 258, awaiting Arnold's signature, would demand greater responsibility from plastic manufacturers to prevent pre-production plastic pellets, or "nurdles", from escaping into the marine evironment. By the gazillions. As they currently do, due to poor management practices from the aformentioned industries. And creating a huge mess....

The bill passed the California Legislature, and is now in the Governator's hands, so now is the time to make your voice heard. Send a letter here.

AB 258 is part of the Pacific Protection Initiative, a package of 5 bills aimed at stemming the tide of toxic garbage flowing out to sea. Check out all 5, and stay tuned for an update.

For more on the issue of plastic pollution and the marine environment, see this excellent article in Best of Life. An apropos excerpt:

"Ask a group of people to name an overwhelming global problem, and you’ll hear about climate change, the Middle East, or AIDS. No one, it is guaranteed, will cite the sloppy transport of nurdles as a concern. And yet nurdles, lentil-size pellets of plastic in its rawest form, are especially effective couriers of waste chemicals called persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, which include known carcinogens such as DDT and PCBs.

The United States banned these poisons in the 1970s, but they remain stubbornly at large in the environment, where they latch on to plastic because of its molecular tendency to attract oils."