Seattle Answers the Paper vs. Plastic Question

Seattle takes a look at the question "Paper or Plastic?" and comes up with a proposal that Seattle city officials hope will dramatically reduce plastic and paper bag waste within the city.



More about Headline: Earth
Katie Fehlinger hosts Headline: Earth, which takes an unbiased look at all sides of the global warming debate. Headline: Earth is a video podcast with features, interviews and commentary on current global warming issues.

Paper or Plastic? The Answer is Neither

TreeHugger Blog took a look at the age old question Paper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything You Need to Know.

Paper bags or plastic bags
Both paper and plastic bags require

• Lots and lots of resources
• Lots and lots of energy
• Proper recycling
  

All of these require that consumers and municipal waste collector or private recycling company participate; there are a lot of different variables that can lead to low recycling rates.

Bottom Line from their Research

Ultimately, neither paper nor plastic bags are the best choice; we think choosing reusable canvas bags instead is the way to go.

From an energy standpoint, according to this Australian study,

• Reusable Canvas bags are 14 times better than plastic bags
• Reusable Canvas bags 39 times better than paper bags
  

This is based on numbers that assume reusable canvas bags get reused at least 500 times during their life time.

Grab a Reusable My Green Sac Bag and go the next time you go shopping. Try our double sided My Green Sac from Cafe Press, or one of our collection of choices on Zazzle.

Sources:
Collin Dunn. July 9, 2008. Paper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything You Need to Know. TreeHugger.com

Australian Government. December 2002. Plastic Shopping Bags – Analysis of Levies and Environmental Impacts. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

20 + Ways to Reuse a Plastic Bag

While we'd like to see everyone converting over to reusable shopping bags, until plastic bags are entirely banned, the numbers show us that the average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year. This adds up to the United States to going through 100,000,000,000 (billion) plastic shopping bags every year.

Target (one of my favorite places to shop of all times) has printed up suggestions right on their bags for ways of reusing plastic bags.

10 Ways to Reuse a Plastic Bag

Tiny Trashcare Liner

Doggy Duty

Water Balloon

Roadtrip Rubbish

Soggy Laundry

Ice Pack for Head

Toiletry Tote

Kitty Litter Liner

Tomorrow's Lunchbag

Care Package Padding

My Favorite Ways to Reuse a Plastic Bag
In addition to being my favorite store to shop, Target plastic bags are also my favorite plastic bags, because there are so many ways to reuse them. My personal favorites include

• Carrying Gym Clothes or Work-out Clothes and shoes
• Making portable Knitting projects to carry on-the-go
  
• Storing Yarn
• Packing Toiletries for a trip
• Easy Garbage bag for the car
  
• Gift Package Wrapping
  
• Package Packing/padding
• Filling with paper, colored pencils and coloring books as portable activity kits for the girls
• Keeping on hand in the car for emergencies e.g. storing wet clothes, shoes and other wet children things
• Mini garbage bag for the bathroom.
  

Other Ways of Using Plastic Bags
Some of the other ways of reusing a plastic bag include

• Turning Your Plastic Bags into Fabric to Reuse and make your own tote.
• Wet umbrella holders
• Create plastic 'yarn' for crocheting into different projects e.g. bags, hats
• Knee protectors for gardening
• Easy 'gloves' to protect your hands when handling food (or pet leavings)
  

Recycling Plastic Bags - The Retote
Target has found a way to Recycling all of their plastic bags that are turned in, creating a Retote. You get the latest issue of Newsweek, send in your old plastic Target bags and they send you a coupon for a Retote bag.

I decided not to get one, because we already have a lot of their regular reusable bags and the My Green Sacs. If you are interested in knowing more about Target's Retote program take a look at these related articles.

• Target + Newsweek + Terracycle = Bags!
• Calling All Target Plastic Bags
• NEWSWEEK, Target and TerraCycle Team Up for Innovative Program
  

Do you have more ideas?
Be sure to share your favorite ways of reusing a plastic bag as part of the Mommyfest Blog Party.

This Earth Day - Choose Hope, Choose Action, Choose to Solve the Crisis

A moving message of hope this Earth Day from the Environmental Defense Fund.





Join in and

Choose Hope, Choose Action, Choose to Solve the Global Warming Crisis.

If everyone contributes a bit together we find the solutions to solve the crisis. Remember what Al Gore has said:

What we take for granted might not be here for our children.

I want to be sure that my children have access to the same natural beauty in our environment that I have as a child and as an adult.

Make One Small Change
This year Celebrate Earth Day by committing to make one change to your daily routine. Changing one small change can make a big difference over the course of a year. Some suggestions:

• Bring lunch to work in a reusable container
  
• Remember to bring a reusable shopping bag and stop using plastic bags
  
• Unplug your chargers
• Stop buying plastic bottles
  

For even more suggestions take a look at these older posts:

• Earth Day 2008 - Tips to Help Our Climate
• Green Things That Can Make a Difference
  

You can read more about Al Gore's quest to save the planet and simple ways to help the environment at the Earth Hour 2008 - Earth Day lens.

Reusable Bag Day - April 21, 2008

"Paper or Plastic?"

The new answer is "NEITHER!"

National Reusable Bag Day
National Reusable Bag Day is a great opportunity to BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) and help reduce disposable bag usage nationwide. The event is being sponsored by Earthshare and Earthwise Bag Company, Inc.

The Plastic Bag Issue
If you grocery shop once a week, in five years you’ll have kept about 250 to 1,000 grocery bags out of our landfills.

100 billion disposable plastic bags are used each year in the U.S., 99% of which are not recycled – and that each bag could take up to a thousand years to fully break down naturally in landfills.

Get Involved with Reusable Bag Day

Starting on April 21 and from then on every other day, when you are given the choice of "Paper or Plastic?" say "NEITHER!" Remember to BYOB - bring or purchase your own reusable bag instead.

Use Reusable Bag Day as the occasion to start bringing reusable bags anytime you shop.

You can make Reusable Bag Day happen every day.

My Green Sac's Reusable Bag Day Sac
My Green Sac™ is releasing our first design on CafePress in honor of Reusable Bag Day.

The My Green Sac 100% cotton canvas signature tote bags make perfect reusable bags. At 15" x 18" x 6" the sac is large enough to carry two bags of plastic groceries.

Order a couple and keep them in the car, then you'll always have a reusable bag when you need one. (Click on the Cafepress link or the image link.)

Remember to make Reusable Bag Day something you do every day.

More Information:
Reusable Bag Day - April 21, 2008, EarthShareCA.org
ReusableBagDay.org
Ways to Get Involved. ReusableBagDay.org