Whole Foods Market is giving St. Louis Earth Day 10 cents per bag!

St. Louis Earth Day is so grateful and thrilled to have been chosen by St. Louis area Whole Foods Markets as the recipient of their One Dime at a Time promotion for the first 3 months of 2018! The One Dime at a Time promotion works like this: every time a customer brings a reusable bag to Whole Foods Market, they are given the option to either  receive a 10-cent discount on their groceries or have the dime donated to their chosen non-profit — this time around, that’s us!

The timing and spirit of this promotion could not be any better; in a few short weeks we will be asking you to take the #EarthDayChallenge, not just at our annual St. Louis Earth Day Festival, but EVERY DAY! Our Earth Day Challenge has been a meaningful way for attendees to get involved and make a difference during Earth Day by taking active transportation (like biking or public transportation) to our Festival, bringing a refillable water bottle, eating less meat, and, of course, bringing a reusable bag!

The importance of bringing reusable bags and avoiding single-use plastic bags cannot be overstated. Single-use plastic bags cannot be recycled in single-stream bins (the blue dumpsters with the recycling logo) because of the chaos they cause at recycling facilities — they get caught in the gears and cause the whole plant to shut down while they are pulled out of machinery. …And that’s if they make it inside a bin. You have surely noticed plastic bags blowing down your street like an urban tumbleweed, or stuck flapping in the top of a tree like a depressing flag. Single-use plastic items that end up as litter are destined to end up in our waterways, eventually making their way into the ocean, where they do not break down — they just become smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, which are eaten by wildlife and eventually make it into our own food system in the fish we eat. According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags used annually, which require over 12 million barrels of oil to make — and of course these bags are used for just a few minutes and last for hundreds of years. In fact, every piece of plastic that has ever been created still exists in some form. While this is all very unpleasant information, there is some good news in that you (yes, YOU) can help reduce the amount of trash in our oceans.

Here at St. Louis Earth Day, we believe that making a meaningful difference in the world will depend on everyone taking small steps to reduce waste and conserve resources — not just when it’s convenient, but as a daily habit! As environmentalists, it’s important to walk the walk and set an example for our friends, family, and neighbors by carrying our own water bottles, having reusable bags on hand, driving less to reduce our fossil fuel addiction, and consuming less meat. Our Earth Day Challenge is designed to help you be greener by setting achievable goals that can become daily habits.

In an effort to remind you to ALWAYS carry a reusable bag, St. Louis Earth Day is offering stylish shopping bags printed with our logo. They fold up into pouches hidden inside the bag so you can keep a few in your purse, glove box, or anywhere else so you are never without a reusable bag. Besides being attractive and convenient, each bag purchased offsets the cost of one recycling bin at a community event!

Click here to purchase yours — and don’t forget to take your bag to Whole Foods Market to support your friends at St. Louis Earth Day!