Brand name drug makers and their generic counterparts rarely find themselves on the same side of an issue, but now they are making an exception. They have teamed up to fight a local law in California, the first in the nation, that makes them responsible for running — and paying for — a program that would allow consumers to turn in unused medicines for proper disposal.
 
United Pharmacy in Berkeley, Calif., already has a bin on site to dispose of expired drugs.
Such so-called drug take-back programs are gaining in popularity because of a growing realization that those leftover pills in your medicine cabinet are a potential threat to public health and the environment.

We’re fighting to rid California of single use plastic bags and expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam™) food containers.  Disposable plastic products and packaging are filling the world’s oceans with debris (mostly plastic).  This tidal wave of plastic pollution devastates the marine ecosystem, adds pollutants to seafood, and harms California’s $46 billion dollar coastal tourism economy.  We support solutions that:

• End the "Throw-Away" culture by reducing the use disposable products - like plastic bags, straws, cups, and containers while choosing refillable and re-usable alternatives.
• Get rid of expanded polystyrene foam packaging and other wasteful, harmful products.

In the last four years, we’ve helped many communities decide to get rid of single-use plastic bags and foam food containers.  Learn more about what we’re doing to promote reusables and take action in your community on foam containers and plastic bags.

Clean Water Actions and our allies are in the final stretch of a multi-year effort to develop and finalize California’s Safer Consumer Products (SCP) Regulations.   However, due eleventh hour efforts by the chemical industry and their allies to delay the regulations, we have to keep the pressure on Sacramento to move forward with these ground breaking rules.

Please take a moment to send a message to Governor Brown and ask him to ensure that the Safer Consumer Products regulations move forward!

The two-year legislative session that ended August 31 brought serious setbacks for Clean Water Action campaigns to reduce plastic pollution of California’s waterways and protect communities and the environment from fracking dangers. However, state lawmakers passed measures Clean Water Action initiated to protect drinking water, particularly for small and economically disadvantaged communities, which Gov. Brown recently signed into law.

Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food Initiative: VOTE YES!
Many foods on the market in California and nationally, including certain baby formulas and a high percentage of corn, soy, cotton, and sugar beets used in processed foods, are made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs).  GMOs are plant or animal products with laboratory-altered DNA. This experimental form of food production has not undergone long-term, peer-reviewed health impacts research. Yet because there are no GMO labeling requirements, consumers can’t tell which products contain GMOs.

If Proposition 37 is approved, it will:

Government Performance and Accountability Act: VOTE NO!
Proposition 31 would allow local governments to create their own interpretations of how to comply with the intent or objectives of state laws and regulations, “while advancing a prosperous economy, quality environment, and community equity.” If adopted the environmental impacts could be destructive. For example:

Vote For These Clean Water Champions!
The 112th Congress has voted relentlessly to weaken basic environmental protections, including the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. While most of the House’s bad bills did not move beyond the Senate, they could be resurrected in the next Congress, depending on what happens this November 6. That is why Clean Water Action is supporting incumbents, Clean Water champions and new candidates with strong environmental credentials.

U.S. House: 


MADISON, Wis.–Trey Mackey expertly baits his fishing hook with a live worm, sits down on a folding chair and casts a line into the waters of Monona Bay. He’s driven up from Chicago for a day of fishing that could provide a fresh, tasty dinner of blue gill.

Every state, including Wisconsin, has issued health advisories for an array of rivers, lakes and bays that warn of the dangers of eating fish tainted with industrial compounds and other chemicals. For Mackey, who is African American, the risk is exacerbated: People of color eat a lot of locally-caught fish for economic and cultural reasons. And yet they are the least likely to be aware of the risks because state efforts to warn anglers fail to reach many minority and low-income populations.

A bill that would ban food vendors from dispensing products in foam containers, like the clamshells cartons that often hold hamburgers, will likely be voted on by the California Assembly by the end of the month.

The containers made out of polystyrene are already banned on a local level in 65 California counties and cities, including San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Marin County and the city of Alameda. The new bill would take the ban statewide.