Following the lead of San Francisco, California, the first U.S. city to ban plastic shopping bags in April 2007, the Kokua Hawai'i Foundation launched its grassroots Plastic Free Hale'iwa campaign in December, asking local businesses in Hale'iwa to voluntarily stop using single-use plastic bags. The plastic-free effort caught on, but gained more large-scale traction across Maui and Kaua'i counties, where laws enacted in January 2011 now ban businesses from offering their customers plastic shopping bags.
On O'ahu, while no laws have been put in place to support a countywide ban on plastic shopping bags, communities continue to take matters into their own hands. In the fall of 2010, Plastic Free Kailua kicked off its campaign for businesses to join the community coalition in support of voluntarily doing away with single-use plastic bags. The group is also taking plastic free one step further by organizing community events, like beach cleanups, to build support and awareness.
"The Plastic Free Kailua initiative is a great step towards limiting single-use plastic in the community and is helping to nudge businesses in Kailua in the right direction," explains Eric Mascia, co-owner of Mu'umu'u Heaven, Kailua's hip recycled clothing and wares boutique that has embraced the coalition and its goal. "Plastic Free Kailua is looking to form a very inclusive coalition of Kailua businesses, whereby simply instituting a store-wide policy to ask customers if they need a bag will qualify. Can you imagine the incredible effect that might have if the larger retailers in our community were on board?"