Environment

'Day Without A Bag' Goes Regional in San Diego

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published December 13, 2010 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

Michael Wonsidler, a recyling specialist with San Diego County, dresses up as the Bag Monster to present "Day Without A Bag" to San Diego's County Board of Supervisors.

A campaign to cut down on plastic grocery bags will focus on changing consumer habits, not banning the offending bags. Four San Diego Cities have held " “Day Without a Bag” events in the past, but this Thursday, for the first time, the campaign is going regional in San Diego.

A new element of the campaign is a ticket giveaway to people who are "caught in the act" of using their recyclable shopping bag.

Jacy Bolden, regional coordinator for “A Day Without a Bag,” says thousands of recyclable bags will be given away at hundreds of stores all over the county, but the next step for consumers is remembering to use them!

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“A lot of people will say, 'I’m going to go get a free bag,’ Bolden says. “But there are so many people that are using reusables that forget them in the car.”

Statewide legislation to ban single use plastic grocery bags failed earlier this year, and the city of San Diego backed off its efforts to ban the bags when it was threatened with a law suit.

So Bolden says the campaign is going grassroots, and focusing on the power of consumers to make the change.

Several chains, including Target, 99 Cents Only and Stater Brothers, have pledged to give out reusable bags at all of their outlets, as long as supplies last. Many other stores will give incentives to customers who remember to actually use their reusable shopping bag.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.