This is a guest post by Field Correspondent Athman. 

Hi everyone! My name is Athman and I am one of the Field Correspondents for ACE. I want to share with you the story of two unique cities that I have had the privilege of working with these past few years. Fortunately, this story does have a happy ending – one that readers of this blog may find encouraging.

I have been leading Bags Gag (www.bagsgag.org) , a nationwide service project, for a few years now. The mission of Bags Gag is to raise awareness on the harmful effects of plastic bags and to promote reusable bags. Bags Gag has been involved with projects across the globe, ranging from the US to India. The headquarters of Bags Gag is San Jose, California. I also frequently visit a small town on the other side of the globe: Tiruvannamalai in South India. It is safe to say that there are a good number of environmentally conscious residents in both these places. Many organizations have worked extremely hard in both regions to make a positive difference first in their communities and then in the world. San Jose, CA, a city many of us know, is the tenth largest city in the US and the heart of Silicon Valley. Tiruvannamalai, India, a small town on the other side of the world, is home to temples, animals, and many spiritual centers. These two culturally different cities have something recent in common. Both cities have banned plastic bags.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Tiruvannamalai in South India undergoes similar changes. Finally, after years of undying, hard work put in by many people, the fruits of the hard work are starting to become more visible. It is wonderful to watch positive changes happen in both places. We can see that from a small town to the tenth largest city in the US, change is applicable to literally any place that needs it. A plastic bag ban by itself may not be an annihilation of the plastic bag, but is certainly a great way to immensely lessen the use of plastic.

Thank you for reading this update; please take a look at www.bagsgag.org for more information and stories like these. Please be sure to pledge not to use plastic bags.

Have a great “bag-free” year!