Residents can attend environmental events and bring reusable containers for a chance at prizes.
Long Beach’s inaugural Bring Your Own Week will encourage residents to cut down on single-use plastics from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7 by offering free educational activities and a chance to win prizes.
The event is meant to encourage the long term use of reusable cups, bags and other containers in order to reduce pollution and waste caused by single-use plastics. A group of local organizations and businesses including Ethikli, Algalita, Bring Your Own Long Beach, Upstream and Long Beach’s Environmental Services Bureau, teamed up to create the LB Reuses Coalition, which is running the event.
Residents can visit 19 local businesses, equipped with their 2023 BYO Week stamp card, reusable take-out container, cup, or bag and leave with a stamp and a sense of accomplishment. Stamps can also be earned by attending any of the four events being hosted throughout the week.
Participants who collect four stamps will be entered for a chance to win a set of reusable items; those who collect eight stamps have a chance to win a gift card to local businesses; those who collect 12 stamps can win a skateboard and activity set.
Entries will be given by local businesses through a distinguishable stamp and can be earned every time a resident uses a reusable container in place of a single-use one.
Some of the participating businesses have been encouraging its customers for years to use reusable containers through stickers. Katie Allen with Algalita, a national organization focused on ending plastic pollution, said that the group wanted to take the sticker program “to the next level” by setting a week apart to incentivize residents and empower them to try reusables.
Allen said LB Reuses members visited their favorite local businesses to ask owners if they wanted to participate, many of whom had not considered the concept of allowing customers to bring reusable containers.
Allen said she hopes the participating businesses will keep encouraging their customers to bring reusable containers year-round, as the event is meant as a starting point to raise awareness.
“… It’s feeling like people are starting to get energized around this movement again … I haven’t felt this kind of community energy around this in a few years now.”
Katie Allen, member of Agalita
A Santa Barbara study found that 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced since the 1950s, most of which still sits in landfills or contaminates water, soil and animals through accidental ingestion.
California has led efforts to reduce single-use plastics by limiting plastic straws and utensils at restaurants, charging for plastic bags and setting standards to meet recycling requirements.
Allen has been with Algalita for years and said she’s been pleased with the positive reactions to the first BYO Week.
“There was this energy that was palpable before the pandemic, and then it was just completely gone,” Allen said. “I don’t know what it’s been, but this summer and just the beginning of the school year, it’s feeling like people are starting to get energized around this movement again … I haven’t felt this kind of community energy around this in a few years now.”
Some tips from Allen for people who are new to reducing their single-use plastics:
- Pay attention to what’s in your trash can. For Allen, she noticed how many popsicle sticks and wrappers she found, and began making homemade popsicles in silicone containers with her family to cut down on plastic.
- Find ways you’re already reducing plastic. Allen suggests picking an item you already use as a reusable container, and try to imagine swapping that out with a single-use item. “You’ll notice how absurd that sounds,” she said. This will encourage you to see it’s possible to reuse in other places.
- Start small. “The last thing you want to do is go home and throw away all your plastics and think your habits will change overnight,” Allen said. Choose one item at a time and work from there.
- Aesthetics matter. Allen said your connection to your reusables is more important than you might think. She suggests choosing containers in your favorite color and making sure you enjoy the look, feel and function.
- Try a home-waste audit. Algalita offers a form on its website so residents can calculate how much single-use plastic they’re accumulating and how to cut down.
Residents can pick up a BYO Week stamp card at one of the 19 participating businesses, or download and print a card online. A full list of waste-reducing events can be found on the LB Reuses webpage.
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