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Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
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Plastic bag lobbying group influences curriculum
- 08-19-2011
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By Susanne Rust/San Francisco Chronicle
Under pressure from a lobbying group for the plastics industry, California school officials edited a new environmental curriculum to include positive messages about plastic shopping bags, interviews and documents show. The rewritten textbooks and teacher's guides coincided with a public relations and lobbying effort by the American Chemistry Council to fight proposed plastic bag bans throughout the country, including one eventually approved in San Francisco. But despite the positive message, activists say plastic bags kill marine animals, leach toxic chemicals, and take an estimated 1,000 years to decompose in landfills. In 2009, a private consultant hired by state school officials added a new section to the 11th-grade teacher's edition textbook called "The Advantages of Plastic Shopping Bags." (more...)
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