The Santa Monica Plastic Bag Monster, Mary McNeil from the Surfrider Foundation, encourages people to call their senators and urge them to pass AB 1998 (Single Use Plastic Bag Ban) at the Santa Monica Boardwalk on Thursday, August 19, 2010. At 19 billion plastic bags a year, California is currently the biggest consumer of single-use plastic bags. AB 1998 will eliminate the distribution  plastic bags in California by prohibiting grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores and similar stores from distributing single-use plastic bags.  Plastic bags are a primary component of urban litter pollution and marine litter pollution.  Single-use plastic bags are a problem product because they are light, aerodynamic and are littered at a high rate.  Once littered, plastic bags travel through the environment, ultimately ending up in the ocean and joining giant "garbage patches" circulating in ocean vortices.