12-year-old stands up to 'Big Plastic,' rallies 150,000 to stop bill that would make plastic bag bans illegal in communities across Illinois

• Fifth-grader Abby Goldberg launched a campaign on Change.org to stop "Big Plastic" from crushing her dream to ban plastic bags in her community.

• Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is considering whether to sign or veto a bill that could make it illegal for towns in Illinois to pass plastic bag bans.

• Abby will deliver 150,000 petitions to Gov. Quinn's Chicago office on Tuesday

[July 02, 2012]  CHICAGO -- More than 150,000 people have joined a growing campaign on Change.org calling on Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn to stop "Big Plastic" from thwarting the efforts of a 12-year-old girl who is working to pass a plastic bag ban in her community.

As part of a school project, Abby Goldberg, a student from Grayslake, was working on an effort to ban single-use plastic bags in her community. After beginning to mobilize many in her community to support the effort, lobbyists with the plastics industry put pressure on statewide legislators to prevent local communities in Illinois from banning plastic bags.

"My friends and I were beginning to make great progress, until the oil and chemical industry pulled a dirty trick to kill my campaign," said Abby Goldberg. "These lobbyists passed a bill that would make it illegal for towns across Illinois to create plastic bag bans."

The bill, Senate Bill 3442, passed both the Illinois House and the Illinois Senate, and is waiting to land on the governor's desk. Quinn has not indicated whether he plans to sign the bill, which is why Abby is mobilizing support to urge him to veto the measure. Abby will deliver the 150,000 signatures on her petition to the governor's Chicago office on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

"Kids and adults like me are standing up to Big Oil and Big Plastic, creating bans everywhere, including in Los Angeles, Hawaii, Seattle, Austin and more. Communities should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to ban single-use plastic bags, including here in Illinois," said Goldberg. "I'm not afraid of Big Plastic, and I'm going to take all these signatures on my petition and present them to Gov. Quinn in hopes that he'll listen to tens of thousands of Illinois residents who want to protect the environment without fear of being bullied by Big Plastic."

Supporters of SB 3442 have said that they hope this can be model legislation for other states, which could effectively limit the ability of communities nationwide to pass bans on plastic bags.

"Young people like Abby Goldberg are using Change.org to level the playing field against big companies and big lobbyists," said Mike Jones, deputy campaign director at Change.org, "But because 150,000 people are standing with Abby Goldberg against this bill, she may just achieve her goal to ban plastic bags in her community."

Live signature totals from Abby Goldberg's campaign:
http://www.change.org/bigplastic 

Change.org is the world's fastest-growing platform for social change -- growing by 2 million new members a month and empowering millions of people to start, join and win campaigns for social change in their community, city and country. For more information on Change.org, visit http://www.change.org/about.

[Text from file received from Change.org]