About MASSPIRG
MASSPIRG FIGHTS FOR THE PUBLIC—MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz testifying before the legislative committee considering the Updated Bottle Bill, urging lawmakers to stand with the public instead of siding with the beverage and bottling industries, and to vote to update the commonwealth's most sucessful recycling program.
An Independent Voice For Consumers
MASSPIRG is a consumer group that stands up to powerful interests whenever they threaten our health and safety, our financial security or our right to fully participate in our democratic society.
Since 1972, we’ve stood up for consumers, countering the influence of big banks, insurers, chemical manufacturers and other powerful special interests.
OUR TOP PRIORITIES
Using the time-tested tools of investigative research, media exposés, grassroots organizing, advocacy and litigation, MASSPIRG stands up to powerful interests and delivers concrete results.
UPDATE THE BOTTLE BILL
For more than 30 years, Executive Director Janet Domenitz has fought to make Massachusetts healthier and more sustainable. By updating the Bottle Bill, we can keep an extra billion bottles from being buried and burned every year. >LEARN MORE
KEEP MASS ON TRACK
We won more federal money for high-speed rail in New England, and we organized the public to convince the legislature to limit fare hikes and service cuts on the T. >LEARN MORE
REINING IN WALL STREET
After the financial crisis, we spearheaded the fight to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which recently forced Capital One to pay back $140 million in unfair credit card fees to consumers. >LEARN MORE
PROTECTING CONSUMERS
Our toy safety reports and lab research have led to recalls of more than 150 toxic or dangerous toys, and our advocates have pushed to keep toxic chemicals out of all consumer products.>LEARN MORE
What's New
Boston-- Amid uncontrolled spread of the novel coronavirus across the country, MASSPIRG and top health experts delivered a letter Wednesday to Governor Baker, noting that Massachusetts is in the “Yellow” column, according to COVID Exit Strategy, and calling on him to be prepared to shut down again if new COVID 19 outbreaks emerge.
John Lewis was an American hero.
Most people knew him as a champion of civil rights, whether as a young man marching for freedom on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965 or serving as the “conscience of the Congress” for the past 33 years. Yet John Lewis was also a dependable ally on public interest issues, a tenacious advocate of voting reform and open government, consumer protection and a healthy environment.
Few people living today remember what it was like to live through a world war, but that’s what we’re in, and we’re going to have to sacrifice if we want to save ourselves and each other. Just as the greatest generation did, we need to step up to what history has delivered.
U.S. PIRG is calling on municipal, state and federal policymakers to mandate face masks in all indoor public spaces, as well as in outdoor locations where it’s hard for people to socially distance six feet apart.
Public Health
Responding to the COVID crisis
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever, we need to work together to ensure that our government has a coordinated, strategic response to safeguard the public’s health, protect consumers from emerging dangers and ensure people can still participate fully in our democracy.
Solid Waste
Massachusetts resumes bans on single-use plastic bags
Gov. Charlie Baker has rescinded an emergency order from March that paused the use of reusable bags in the commonwealth. The decision will allow bans on single-use plastic bags to resume in 139 cities and towns across Massachusetts.
Democracy
Voting this fall in Massachusetts is now safer
Gov. Charlie Baker has signed into law new plans to make the September primary and November general election as safe and inclusive as possible for all voters, including: universal vote-by-mail, expanded early voting, an online portal for voters to track the progress of their absentee ballots, public health safeguards at polling places, and more.
Public Health
Ban on flavored tobacco products takes effect in Massachusetts
A MASSPIRG-backed state law prohibiting the sale of all flavored tobacco products has gone into effect in Massachusetts. Aiming to address the issue of youth tobacco use in particular, the legislation also taxes tobacco vaping products at the same rate as cigarettes and increases retailer fines for sales to minors.
Support Us
Your donation supports MASSPIRG's work to stand up for consumers on the issues that matter, especially when powerful interests are blocking progress.