Six Month Pledge Campaign by Art Student

Had to include this one, it's about a plastic bag education campaign by Roman Jaster, a student at my alma mater:

Apr 30, 2007
CalArts Student Says No to Paper and Plastic

Banned in San Francisco and likely on the way out in LA, too, plastic bags have truly become an enemy of the state, at least in California. But paper's no angel, either; the only real solution is to get people to start bringing reusable bags themselves. One CalArts student staged an "ecological intervention" to confront shoppers with the concept...

Here's Roman's website documenting the project

The Changing Face of Shopping Bags in Ethiopia

This is an opinion piece from Ethiopia on the potential ban there. The writer makes some good points, namely that there needs to be a public education campaign to accompany any ban. But the piece quotes a New Scientist article that I have a big problem with (couldn't find the original link): "As greenhouse gas emission rise to the top of the environment agenda, plastic begins to look even better, as anything that reduces total energy demands has to be progress." This is, once again, not seeing the forest for the trees.

Ethiopia: Outlawing Plastic Bags; Will That Take Shopping Backwards?

April 25, 2007
B. Mezgebu, The Daily Monitor via AllAfrica.com, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Before its collapse in Europe, socialism had made it almost fashionable and it must be said essential, for people in those countries to carry shopping bags wherever and whenever they went outside their homes. The logic being that someone might stumble on some critically scarce consumer good on their daily errands...

Bagging reusables in plastic

Time to go OFF autopilot here folks, if your goal is to actually make a difference that is. If it's more greenwash, then, I guess it makes sense:

April 25, 2007

Bags you win!
Lynn Morris, Dorset Echo, UK

SHOPPERS queued for hours to buy a designer shopping bag emblazoned with the words "I'm not a plastic bag". It was sold to them in - you guessed it - a plastic bag...

Here's another link about the story from New Scientist

photo: Matthew Waite and Ian Roe finally get their hands on a limited-edition Anya Hindmarch bag at Sainsbury, Castlepoint

Pricey but Pretty Reusables

Designer reusables, if 150 £ is not too expensive for you, they sure are pretty:

24 January 2007

Getting it right....

Style Bubble

Ok, I caused a bit of a palava with the Louis Vuitton laundry/market bagsthat has now prompted a wee trend of carrying the real deal on the streets(quite possibly the easiest and cheapest way to bring a catwalk item toreality)...

Reusable Campaign at Virgin Megastores

24-Jan-07
Virgin Megastores launches recyclable bags
Marketing Week

Virgin Megastores is introducing 100% recyclable carrier bags and haslaunched an in-store campaign encouraging customers to reuse existing bags. The company currently uses 16 million bags annually across its 120 stores but wants to cut its contribution to the 10,000 tonnes of plastic bags thrown away in the UK each year...

Customer Reactions

Reusable bag company Spice Bags put this on their blog:

Jan. 19, 2007

IKEA Your consumer wants a resuable bag. Is she/he going to get it from you or from someone else?

Spice Bags Blog

IKEA announced it wouldn't give away free plastic bags and would charge fora sturdier reusable bag. How do you think their customers reacted? Here are some actual customer comments...

Plastic Bag Free Month in York

Caroline Lewis, owner of The Good Food Shop, in York, has declared February "Plastic Bag Free Month":

Feb. 1, 2007
Owner claims bagging rights

The Press, York, UK

MORE than 100,000 tonnes of plastic bags are thrown away every year in the UK, taking up to 500 years to break down in landfill sites. That shocking statistic has inspired one York shop owner to take action...

Canadian Quits Plastic Bags

A Toronto blogger shares his story about quitting plastic bags:

January 12, 2007
City Waste: Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
Kevin in City, Fresh Daily Blog, Toronto, Canada

The Toronto Star is reporting today about the City's plan to divert 70% of household waste from the dump by 2010. According to the article, 2.5 billion plastic grocery bags are consumed in the province each year, at a rate of 4 bags per person per week. They can't be recycled right now, and even though there are plans to introduce plastic bag recycling next year, there are no solid plans in place. When I moved into my current apartment, I quickly accumulated a hoard of plastic bags from buying groceries and housewares. It got to the point where I was trying to find bigger bags to put all the smaller bags in...

Eco-Stylish Reusables

January 10, 2007
Grocery stores flaunt eco-style
By Jenifer Gee, Amador Ledger Dispatch, Jackson CA

While you may not see them on the arms of models strutting the runways in Paris, environmentally-friendly grocery bags are becoming more of a must-have accessory for eco-conscious county residents...

CRAFTY: Great bags knitted from bags in France

January 15, 2007

Beautifully Knitted Used Plastic Bags

Maya of Saya blog, Antibes, France

As a person who's trying to act on what she believes in, I try to find a solution to this plastic problem by bringing my own shopping bag and saying NO to another plastic bag as often as I can. Also those plastic I had collected since I've been here (2yrs), I use and cut them up to make a bag by knitting them...

2 other projects:

waistbag

water bottle bag

Great Short Film - Watch it!

This is GREAT! a short film about the problems with plastic bags, highlighting the beautiful reusable bags of Oneless.co.uk. I'm going to put this on my sidebar so it remains easy to find:

PLASTIC PLANET: THE CURSE OF THE CARRIER BAG

Produced, filmed and directed by Petica Watson, Edited by Anthony Alexander. The company is called Connected Pictures

Tips for Retailers

Planet Ark is an Australian environmental group. These are simple but effective ideas for distributer-based education:

Tips for retailers to encourage the use of reusable bags
Planet Ark, Sydney, Australia

Where to Get Reusable Bags

Reusable bags seem to be hanging on every chair back and doorknob at my house, but some people might not be so lucky. Californians Against Waste has a website full of helpful info, including this list of places to get reusable bags:

How Do I Get a Reusable Bag?

Football fans get reusables

Giving out reusable bags at football games - great idea:

One Watford way to greener environment

Dec. 13, 2006
http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.1070861.0.one_watford_way_to_greener_environment.php
By Martin Booth, Watford Observer, UK

MORE than 1,000 reusable bags were distributed to shoppers attending Watford Football Club's clash against Reading...

IKEA's Green Consumers

Consumers want green products. Are you listening?

December 12, 2006
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=17880
Rajiv Badlani, American Chronicle, Beverly Hills, CA, US

IKEA announced it wouldn’t give away free plastic bags and would charge for a sturdier reusable bag. How do you think their customers reacted? Here are some actual customer comments...

Tips to remember your reusables

Leave your bags on your front doorknob so you'll remember to bring them when you go out:

Get hooked

Dec. 8, 2006
http://freyaanddot.blogspot.com/2006/12/get-hooked-i-really-dont-know-whats.html
Freya, Little Green Dot, PA

I really don't know what's wrong with me. I mean, I care so much about the environment and I know damn well that plastic bags are a bad thing, and yet four out of five times, I'll get to wherever I'm shopping and realize I've left my cool string bags...

Hanover High Kids spreading the word

Cool! Treehugger picked up the story about the Hanover High kids in New Hampshire:

One Bag at a Time....

December 7, 2006
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/one_bag_at_a_ti.php

Hanover High School students in Hanover, NH have decided to help protect their environment by taking on the challenge of convincing consumers in their town to switch from disposable shopping bags to reusable ones. The whole project sprang out of a family trip one of the kids took to Australia, where they learned about a similar grass-roots project that spread in that country...

Kids lead the way

Summarizes some recent student run campaigns:

Kids can see the writing on the wall

Dec. 2, 2006
http://www.badlani.com/blog/2006/12/02/kids-can-see-the-writing-on-the-wall-businesses-should-learn-from-them/

Kids can see the writing on the wall. Businesses should learn from them.

Kids are faster than businesses in catching on that plastic bags are a big issue for the world today and one of the easiest problems to solve...

Enviro costs of paper & plastic

This is from the Village Green blogger in Akron Ohio again. She/he has included some interesting statistics from the New England EPA about paper bags:

Lots of Luck

December 02, 2006

http://longlivethevillagegreen.blogspot.com/2006/12/paper-or-plastic.html

Long Live the Village Green Blog, Akron, Ohio

Shopping today at a Tops Store, now holding going out of business sales at various locations, I had with me my cloth shopping bags. So when the clerk began to bag up my groceries without asking, "paper or plastic?" -- I stopped her by saying -- "I brought my own bags, I'm trying to save the planet."She gave me a disgusted look and said, "Lots of luck," then turned her back on me and swaggered away like I was some kind of nut...

Paper or plastic? Neither in Poughkeepsie

Company helps environment with reusable bags

December 3, 2006
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061203/COLUMNISTS07/612030358
By DAN SHAPLEY, Poughkeepsie Journal, Poughkeepsie, NY

Her answer to paper or plastic? Neither.

Last year, Lisa Foster, a Los Angeles resident, gave up her career as an English teacher to proselytize for reusable shopping bags. She started a company, 1 Bag at a Time, to distribute polypropylene bags to grocery stores, including some in the Hudson Valley."My campaign is a national one to educate consumers about the impact of those paper and plastic bags we throw away daily," she said...