Correction: The City of Austin disputes the expense of social media outreach in its reusable bag campaign. See the update below for more.
Austin鈥檚 plastic bag ban in eight days, and city officials are pulling in a celebrity endorsement for their campaign: Willie Nelson.
Or, his statue at least.
"One bag just like the one Willie Nelson is holding literally can replace hundreds 鈥� six hundred or so 鈥� thin plastic bags that you see today,鈥� city council member Mike Martinez said at a press conference in front of outside the ACL Live theater downtown.
Starting March 1, businesses cannot provide plastic bags to their customers at check-outs. Businesses can offer more durable plastic bags or fabric reusable bags at a charge. City officials and advocates of the plastic bag ban campaign held the event today as a part of the city's .
That figure, paid to , has caused something of a stir, attracting the attention of KVUE, the and many others. Today, KUT News received an email from austinbagban.com. On , it writes, 鈥淚f the City of Austin and Sherry Matthews Advertising are spending $90,000 of your money on social media for their "Bring It Austin" plastic bag education campaign, why do I have this Facebook page and not them?鈥�
Update: The City of Austin says that figure鈥檚 incorrect. Out of the marketing budget ,鈥渨e have $64,900 slated for the design and development of a website in English and Spanish,鈥� writes Public Information Specialist Lauren B. Hammond. 鈥淎nd we have $8,200 budgeted for social media efforts.鈥�
Christened 鈥�,鈥� the official campaign features landmarks like the Nelson statue and the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue at Auditorium Shores toting a reusable bag. Eco-friendly bicyclists will also go around Austin today through Saturday handing out free reusable bags.
Mayor Lee Leffingwell said efforts to curtail plastic bag use in Austin started years ago 鈥� such as installing bag recycling containers at area supermarkets.
"But, it was not enough, frankly," Leffingwell said.
Austin is one of few major cities to implement a city-wide ban on plastic bag and committed to or sooner, according to .
Here鈥檚 the 鈥淏ring it Austin鈥� commercial you鈥檒l start seeing a lot more of in the coming days:
