A recent study funded by the American Chemistry Council found that nearly every reusable bag examined for bacteria contained bugs, coliform bacteria (suggesting raw-meat or uncooked-food contamination) or E. coli. However, the study didn’t specify which strains of E. coli were found—many of which are harmless. And don’t forget that the American Chemistry Council represents plastic bag makers, and opposes a California Bill that would ban single-use plastic bags.
What is slightly more annoying (dare we say misleading?) about this study, and the buzz surrounding it, is that if you conduct a similar study of kitchens, refrigerators, sponges, or dish towels, we’re sure you’d find equally alarming results. Plus, with the abundance of over-packaged grocery store items, what are the chances that these germs are actually going come in contact with your food or your family? Regardless of the study’s motives, it does stress an important reminder: clean your reusable grocery bags regularly.
Category Archives: Green Issues
Don’t Panic…Just Clean Your Reusable Grocery Bags
The Financial Burden of Single-use Plastic Bags
You’ve read the staggering statistics on the environmental ramifications of single-use plastic and paper bags. But, have you stopped to consider how much those “free” checkout bags actually cost you? Maybe you should. Plastic bags cost US consumers approximately $4 billion dollars in increased good costs per year. Stores typically pay 2 to 5 cents per plastic bag. Business aren’t spending that money for shopper convenience—they’re burying that cost in the price of each product, adding up to as much as $18 per person, per year (ecovote.org).
An estimated 8 billion plastic bags enter the US waste stream per year, and worldwide over 200,000 plastic bags are dumped into landfills every HOUR (planetark.com). A typical landfill costs over $20 million to build and millions of dollars per year to maintain. Nearly all of this money comes from taxpayers—over $750 million per year in California alone!
What to Do With Old Reusable Bags? Make Furniture!
Here’s a new spin on a reduce, reuse, and recycle contest. Coles Supermarkets in Australia is giving primary schools the chance to win furniture—while encouraging children to be environmentally friendly.
Coles Supermarkets are collecting old and unwanted reusable shopping bags for recycling as part of a two-week bag drive. The chain will accept any polypropylene bags—including shopping bags from other retailers and give-away bags from conferences and exhibitions.
The collected bags will be recycled into outdoor furniture. Primary schools can enter to win the unique furniture by describing what the school is doing to help the environment. The best 100 examples of school recycling and reuse will receive outdoor furniture made from reusable grocery bags.
This initiative is a way to avoid creating more landfill rubbish. By recovering the plastic and turning it into outdoor furniture for primary schools, supporters are hoping future generations of youth will see the benefits of recycling first hand.
We love the idea of program and would love to see something similar in the US. Our only question is…why is the program only two weeks long? It should be an ongoing, never ending initiative—worldwide.
NHL Announces Green Initiative, Swaps Reusable Bags for Plastic Bags
The NHL, with support from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is launching a League-wide green initiative to promote sustainable living and business practices. NHL Green demonstrates the League’s commitment to ecological responsibility, while educating fans and raising awareness of environmental issues.
The NHL also announced today that it will replace 30,000 plastic shopping bags with reusable bags during the Stanley Cup Final. The commemorative bags, which feature the 2010 Stanley Cup Final logo, will be available for a limited time to consumers who make purchases of $10 or more at arena shops in the two Stanley Cup Final markets and at the NHL Powered by Reebok store in midtown New York City.
From the retrofitting of Philips Arena in Atlanta to become the first existing NHL or NBA arena to achieve LEED certification to the construction of the new CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh to LEED gold standards, NHL Clubs have made sustainable business practices a priority for several years.
Fans clicking on the NHL Green button on the NHL.com home page are transported to the home of news stories and videos focused upon the League’s sustainability activities, NRDC-compiled tips for fans on how to live a more eco-friendly life and links to sites that will provide more information and resources.
Ziploc Launches School Fundraising Program To Increase Recycling
Ziploc recently announced a partnership with TerraCycle to provide a fundraising opportunity exclusively for schools. Through the Ziploc® Brigade, schools can collect bags and containers of any size and send them free of charge to TerraCycle to be turned into new plastic-based products. For each bag or container collected, Ziploc® and TerraCycle will pay two cents back to the school. The program is a fun and easy way for parents and teachers to empower children to make a difference while learning about the importance of recycling and reusing.
“We are really pleased to be adding new materials to our collection programs,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “It’s exciting to be able to find new uses for more and more materials that would otherwise be ending up in landfills and giving schools a much needed fundraising opportunity at the same time.” Many recycling centers around the country only accept plastics 1 and 2, and this program is targeted at keeping plastics 3 thorough 7 out of landfills.
Schools can take this awesome initiative one step further by incorporating a reusable grocery bag fundraiser to make even more money for schools. We think that this trend towards more eco-friendly fundraisers that teach our youth and change mindsets about reusing and recycling is wonderful. Anytime we bring reusable shopping bags in lieu of plastic and paper bags, recycle meal containers, or take any other small step towards a better environment—while making money for our schools—is a win-win situation!
The Great ATLANTIC Garbage Patch?
Two separate studies conducted by ocean research groups found that millions of micro-particles of plastic are floating in the waters between Bermuda and Portugal’s mid-Atlantic Azores islands, threatening fish, ocean mammals and, potentially, the sea life humans farm for food.
The studies describe a soup of micro-particles similar to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a phenomenon discovered a decade ago between Hawaii and California that researchers say is likely to exist in other places around the globe.
“I think a lot of people have this idea that there’s a plastic garbage island out there in the sea, and that’s not really what we see out there,” Lead investigator Kara Lavender Law said. “If you’re not looking for anything, you wouldn’t see these plastic particles, but we know that there are clearly millions of them out there.”
Hey High School Students! Maine Energy Idols Competition Underway!
Efficiency Maine’s Maine Energy Idols Music Video Competition is underway—and the top prize is $1,000 and a public service television spot! Grab your friends and produce a 60 second music video combining your musical talents and video producing skills with your knowledge of energy efficiency. They’re looking for entertaining, informative, and thought-provoking spots that educate the public about energy efficiency. Potential topics include compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), alternative energy sources, hybrid vehicles, bio-fuels, energy evaluations, Kill-a-Watt energy meters, etc. We personally think this is the best idea we’ve heard in a long time AND a great way to get the word out about how detrimental plastic bags and paper bags are to the environment.
Think you have what it takes? Hurry…the contest ends May 26, 2010. For all the details, and how to enter, visit Efficiency Maine’s website.
CVS/pharmacy To Support World Wildlife Fund
Remember CVS/pharmacy’s GreenBagTag program that we discussed late last year? Well, CVS is once again making do-gooder headlines with this campaign.
Today the chain announced its support of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in conjunction with the GreenBagTag program launched last fall. Starting on April 1st, for one year, CVS/pharmacy will donate 5 cents to World Wildlife Fund for every GreenBagTag sold to help protect the future of nature around the world.
Thinking about Biodegradable Bags? Think Again.
We recently stumbled upon an excellent resource in the battle to reduce single use plastic bag use—a recently published report from the Florida DEP on retail bag use and ways to curb it. While its data is skewed towards the authoring state, it’s chock-full of interesting and useful information to anyone—worldwide—contemplating a reusable bag program. Many of the interesting tidbits are things we at Bulletin Bag [.com] have covered in other blogs (The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, getting by without plastic bags, etc.), but we wanted to discuss one thing we haven’t touched on in any of our other writings: biodegradable bags.
While biodegradable and compostable bags aren’t new to market, there has been a relatively new push towards their use as alternative to traditional plastic bags. Even though bags that don’t persist in the environment sound like a positive step, there are serious drawbacks.
Baltimore Explores Plastic Bag Bans and Fees
Lawmakers in Baltimore are considering two bills aimed at heading off the proliferation of plastic bag litter around the city. One bill would ban grocery stores, convenience stores, and fast-food chains from giving customers their merchandise in plastic bags. Violators would be fined $250 for a first offense up to $1,000 for three or more offenses in a six-month period. The other bill would require merchants to levy a 25-cent fee on every plastic bag dispensed at carryout. Exceptions would be granted for bagging up fresh fish and meat, candy, cooked foods, dairy products, fruits and nuts and ice.
This isn’t the council’s first attempt to cut down on plastic bag litter, but supporters note the city is facing a state and federal mandate to do something about the trash littering Baltimore’s harbor, and plastic grocery and take-out bags are a big part of the mess.
