Feminist Mormon Housewives use Reusables!

I had to post this one, from the Feminist Mormon Housewives Blog. Wow, who knew there was such a thing? They look like a cool bunch of ladies actually:

April 23, 2007
Paper or Plastic? Neither please
fMhLisa, Feminist Mormon Housewives

I’m sad to admit that my attempts at being eco-friendly are mostly a bit lame. I don’t shower in a pan, and reuse all my water ten times like some people. But I have been making an effort to take baby steps toward helping Mother Earth. (Where I grew up in Southern Utah “environmentalist” was a dirty word much more vile than “feminist”, so the path is a long one.)...

ADM and Bio-plastic

The label "Biodegradable" can be misleading. I must say that I am suspicious of anything ADM does. Even if they ARE plant based, these bags could create the same problems the much-touted ethanol "solution" will - using huge amounts of energy to farm the corn, plus the pesticide runoff and other pollution, and the insanity of using food to run cars or manufacture bags. We should be focusing on reducing our use:

4/23/07
ADM and Metabolix will make bio-plastic. What about Novamont's Mater-bi?
New Energy Watch

A press release today says Archer Daniels Midland and their partners, Metabolix, will be producing "a family of high-performance natural plastics that are biobased, sustainable, and completely biodegradable," to be called Mirel Natural Plastics...

Los Angeles Next?

Hey, maybe my hometown will jump on the bandwagon too!

4/23/2007
L.A. County Supervisors Considers Options to Combat Plastic Bag Problems
Recycling Today Magazine

On April 10 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors discussed the possible banning of plastic bags in the county. San Francisco recently passed legislation banning the bags, with New York State considering the move...

Leaf Rapids beats San Francisco

The little Canadian town of Leaf Rapids beat San Francisco to be the first town in North America to ban plastic bags:

Apr 2, 2007
Tiny Canadian town enacts ban on plastic bags
By Patricia Launt, Reuters, Toronto

A small Canadian town claimed the honor on Monday of being the first municipality in North America to ban retailers from using plastic bags, in an effort to maintain its pristine environment. The town's administrator said Leaf Rapids, a northern Manitoba mining town about 975 km (610 miles) northwest of Winnipeg, has ordered retailers to stop giving away or selling single-use plastic bags as of Monday. Stores that break the law face a C$1,000 ($865) fine....

Brooklyn Assembly Bill to Ban Introduced

April 21, 2007
Assemblyman: It’s time to bag the plastic
Gary Buiso, Courier Life, Brooklyn, NY

Assemblymember William Colton recently introduced a bill seeking to ban plastic grocery bags from large supermarkets statewide...

God Forbid We "interrupt the checkout flow"

Elizabeth Royte, author of the newly published Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash makes some excellent points here - recycling the bags desn't really "close the loop"; feel-good, green-washed activities are not enough; and corporate profits are still trumping real change:

April 18, 2007

Why The Bag Backlash?

Elizabeth Royte, The Huffington Post

When I was asked to speak at something called BagFest at Indiana University South Bend, last week, I was initially skeptical. Why did we need a festival to collect bags for recycling, and what good did recycling them do, in the larger scheme of troubling environmental problems? But when I walked into the cafeteria and saw the ten-foot - and growing fast - mountain of plastic, I had a change of heart.

Santa Cruz Next?

It's so exciting how other cities have been inspired by San Francisco's bold move:

Non-biodegradable plastic bags could be banned in Santa Cruz
The Associated Press

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.- Plastic bags may soon be banned in Santa Cruz.
Taking a cue from neighboring San Francisco, the city is considering a ban on non-biodegradable plastic bags used by supermarkets and other retailers. The petroleum-based sacks have been blamed for littering streets and choking marine life...