The blog formerly known as   Fake Plastic Fish

April 23, 2009

Dear BART EZ Rider Program,

BART’s EZRider program is a great way to take public transit in the San Francisco Bay Area while reducing our plastic waste. Yes, regular BART tickets are made from plastic. Disposable plastic. And they are not recycled. The EZ Rider program replaces hundreds of disposable BART tickets with one refillable card, which is linked to a credit card and reloaded automatically as you use it.

Included with my new card was one piece of plastic I didn’t need. So I’m sending it back to BART with the following note.

April 19, 2009

SF BART
EZ Rider Administration Center
300 Lakeside Dr, 22nd Floor
Oakland, CA 94612

Dear BART:

Thanks so much for the new EZ Rider card. I love the EZ Rider system, specifically because it eliminates the waste of disposable plastic BART tickets.

I am returning this plastic carrying case to you because I really don’t need it. I prefer carrying my EZ Rider card in my wallet with the rest of my credit cards.

Perhaps in the future, you might consider giving patrons the option of receiving a case or not. This way, we can save even more plastic.

Sincerely,

Beth Terry

It’s a small piece of plastic, to be sure. But why hang on to something if we don’t need it? Have you sent anything back lately?

2 Responses to “Dear BART EZ Rider Program,”

  1. Hi Beth,

    I barely ride public transit in San Diego because I ride everywhere. But I thought of riding the bus in January so that I can get some reading in (it is hard to read and bicycle). I thought you could use San Diego’s compass card in your reminder letter writing campaign to BART. The Compass card here is made of plastic and reusable and reloadable.

    Reply

  2. What’s Translink? And why did they just send me an EZ Rider card if the program is being discontinued? I’m confused.

    Reply