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USA Today - 10.21.09
Target has announced it will start offering a 5-cent discount for every reusable bag customers use to pack their purchases. An earlier pilot test among 100 Target stores earlier this year resulted in a 58% reduction in the number of plastic bags used.
Read the entire article here.
Emagazine.com - 10.09
"This Halloween, you can spare the landfill more plastic bags and make an environmental - and fashion - statement with this collection of plastic bag costume ideas. And don't forget to bring your reusable bags along to collect that candy!"
See the Top 10 Plastic Bag Costumes.
Orlando Sentinel.com – Oct. 14, 2009
“Florida environmental officials want to make the state the
first in the nation to prohibit throwaway plastic and paper bags. The proposed
ban would follow a five-year phaseout, during which escalating fees, starting at
a nickel a bag, would be imposed whenever such bags were used… By the fifth and
final year of the state’s proposed phaseout, anyone wanting a paper or plastic
bag for merchandise would be charged a quarter a bag.”
Read entire article here.
NBC 10 News – 10.16.09
CVS joins the growing list of retailers offering customers
incentives for bringing reusable bags. The company is implementing a green bag
card system. For every four shopping trips with a cloth reusable bag, the
customer will receive a coupon for $1. There's also word that Target stores
are offering a 5-cent credit for every reusable bag used.
Read more about the CVS program here.
The Envirosax Blog – Oct. 8, 2009
All over the globe, more and more people are carrying reusable shopping bags. “Unfortunately, these cheap reusable shopping bags are often more of a marketing ploy than a great choice for the environment. To be effective in reducing waste, reusable bags must be able to be reused time and again, and therefore must be extremely durable… Don’t be fooled into thinking that polypropylene is an environmentally sound alternative. You may even find the term ‘biodegradable’ on some of these bags, but the standards for this term is that the bag must be biodegradable in a ‘commercially managed compost environment.’…”
Read the entire blog entry here.
Our Take: This blog is right on. Cheap reusables flooding the market place have become the new disposables. Read more in our article on cheap reusable shopping bags.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer – Sept. 21, 2009
Eight simple tips to reduce your use of paper towels, beverage cups, milk/juice jugs, paper, cleaning products, batteries, dry-cleaner bags and food containers. For example, “Many cleaning products are available in large jugs for decanting into the smaller spray bottles. Also, look for concentrated cleaner refills, for which you can reuse the old spray bottle and just add the water…”
Read all 8 Tips here.
The Mercury News – 9.18.09
“Out of sight, out of mind. Plastic bags officially vanished
from Palo Alto grocery stores Friday, and customers scarcely noticed them
missing… Although the city ban on plastic shopping bags went into effect on
Friday, all seven of the city’s full-service groceries had already made the
switch to offering only paper and reusable bags. On Friday afternoon, customers
were using both, happily.”
Read the entire article here.
