2019-2020 Campaigns As students, we are faced with climate change, the rising cost of education, and threats to public health. Through our internship and volunteer program we work on a set of specific issues to address some of the profound problems of our generation. Through decision making by our board of directors we’ll decide on the state-wide lead campaign, and then a local mix of campaigns on our campus every year. This past year we’ve worked to help protect our oceans by banning single use plastics, turn out the youth vote, promote clean energy, save the bees and respond to the COVID-19 public health crisis. Plastic Free Seas Every day, people throw away tons of plastic “stuff”—cups, plates, bags, containers, forks, knives, spoons and more. All of this waste not only clogs our landfills, trashes our parks, and litters our streets, but it also washes into our rivers and oceans, where it can harm wildlife. Recycling certainly can help mitigate the problem. But unfortunately, of the millions of tons of plastic we produce every year, most is currently not recyclable, and we produce vastly more waste than our recycling infrastructure can handle. As a society, we need to stop creating enormous quantities of unnecessary waste in the first place, rather than focus only on recycling and re-using waste after the fact. The good news is that we have lots of alternatives to single-use plastic items would prevent needless harm to the environment. We recently helped pass the first ever statewide ban on single-use plastic grocery bags here in California, and we defended that measure at the ballot box when the plastics industry tried to repeal it. This year our priority was to work with the UC Office of the President and the UC campuses to lead the fight against plastic pollution by banning non-essential plastic items on campus – and we have seen huge results!
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