90% of Hong Kong people support plastic bag tax

The Green Students Council in Hong Kong conducted a survey outside 25 supermarkets and found that 90% of the respondents supported a tax on plastic bags. Hong Kong consumers use 6.7 billion plastic bags a year, or 1,294 plastic bags per person. Taiwan and Ireland have sharply reduced the use plastic bags by imposing levies three years ago. The Taiwanese, who used to use 909 bags per head, have reduced consumption by 80%. Ireland's consumers used one billion plastic bags annually, or 256 plastic bags a person, before a similar levy was introduced in March 2002. Since then Irish retailers have reported a 90 percent drop in the number of plastic bags used while the government raised 9.6 million euros (HK$94.57 million) in the first year of the levy. Despite this, Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao said charging people HK$1 for each plastic bag is very complex and alternative proposals should be considered. Sounds like the Indian government. Things that are simple for others become complex for us. But I’m surprised to hear this from Hong Kong. Governments! 90% of the people say tax plastic bags and the government thinks it’s too complex. I ask you!

Read me, love me, and take 70 pounds of flesh!

Yes, I do want more folks to read these blogs and to discuss this subject and to visit my website and maybe even to order some bags or tell someone about us so that they will. So I go register myself with blog directories and each one wants his pound of flesh. Here’s one pound (Gosh I wish I could lose weight this way! I have a full 70 pounds to spare) ttp://india.blogstreet.com/bsibin/profile.cgi?url=20six.co.uk/ With the code and shooting my weighing machine, why do I get the feeling that something is not quite right; that I'm not doing something right? Anyone?

What harm can one little plastic bag do?

Not much, you’d think, right? Until you realise that the world's plastic bag consumption rate is estimated to be well over 500 billion plastic bags annually, or almost 1 million per minute. ONE MILLION PLASTIC BAGS A MINUTE being added to the burden that our Earth must bear. One million plastic bags a minute being added to a horde that will not biodegrade for the next 3000 years!!! That’s a lot of harm. If this doesn’t depress you enough, read the full article from the Sun Star Pampanga in the Philippines. The saddest thing is we do have a choice. A simple and elegant choice: calico bags. See how affordable and practical they are at www.badlani.com/bags

The plastic bag issue is fortunately getting some attention

This is good news indeed. That so many people all over the world are taking cognisance of the stupidity of using these harmful devices. I particularly loved the story about 93 year old Orpha Bell Lucas making these delightful caps from used plastic bags. Daily attention of this sort is what is needed to rid the world of this scourge. The city of Bendigo in Australia, it appears, is going to first largish community in the world to voluntarily ban plastic bags. Here's an extract from this truly inspiring story: Bruce Phillips, who will serve on the new working group, said a cultural shift was needed. While he commended major retailers for providing alternative options and consumers for adopting environmentally friendly bags, some intervention was needed. "The problem essentially is a product of the convenience of a throwaway society, and the ramifications are millions of plastic bags which take many years of course to degrade and they create litter and damage to the environment," he said. "When you think about it, an investment of $10 for the average family will avoid the use of something like 2000 plastic bags over a five year period." Cr Phillips said one possibility was to encourage major retailers to charge for plastic bags, and use the profits to cut the price of environmentally friendly bags. "There has to be a better way and it does require some intervention to change communal culture in this regard. We can, I believe, make a difference," he said. Ireland put a 10 cent tax on plastic bags and the usage fell 90%. Worth doing. A voluntary giving up is even better, of course. One of the reasons why people resist it is they believe calico bags would be an expensive alternative. They're not. See how affordable they are at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

I go on and on about plastic bags. Here's why.

Plastic shopping bags have a surprisingly significant environmental impact for something so seemingly innocuous. As well as being an eyesore (next time you are outside, have a look around - you'll be amazed at the number of plastic bags littering our streets and waterways), plastic shopping bags kill large numbers of wildlife each year. In the water, plastic bags can be mistaken for jellyfish by wildlife. This makes plastic bag pollution in marine environments particularly dangerous, as birds, whales, seals and turtles ingest the bags then die from intestinal blockages. Disturbingly, it is claimed that plastic bags are the most common man-made item seen by sailors at sea. The biggest problem with plastic bags is that they do not readily break down in the environment, with estimates for the time it takes them to decompose ranging from 20 to 1000 years. One of the disquieting facts stemming from this is that plastic bags can become serial killers. The incredibly slow rate of decay of plastic bags also means that each bag we use compounds the problem, because the bags simply accumulate. Plastic bags also clog drains and waterways, threatening not only natural environments but also urban ones. In fact, plastic bags in drains were identified as major factors in the severe flooding in Bangladesh in 1988 and 1998. On top of the significant environmental costs, widespread use of plastic bags is also costly in terms of dollars and cents. Apart from the price of the bags themselves, which is four to six cents each, a great deal of money goes into collecting the bags (i.e. cleaning up!) once they've been discarded. The US uses 14 billion plastic bags annually, South Africa 8 billion plastic bags and Australia 6 billion plastic bags are used. Out of these a majority are supermarket plastic bags. ALTERNATIVES There are a range of alternatives to plastic bags. Some retailers offer paper bags but then again paper comes from trees which take years and years to grow. Some progressive supermarket chains have cotton or calico bags available for sale at a very small price. These bags can be kept in the car and used again and again. The advantage of calico bags is that they are stronger than the plastic bags, and also much easier to carry. Also calico/cotton bags can be re-used any number of times. It takes a little thought to get used to bringing your own bags, but it is an easy habit to fall into and it is such a relief not to have to pack the groceries away, and then find room to pack away the plastic bags as well! So next time, hold your head up proudly as you refuse a plastic bag. Replace it by a Cotton/ Calico bag and be proud that you have made a contribution to the future of the planet. People talk about ecological concerns being impractical. Utter nonsense. Just see how economical they are at www.badlani.com/bags/

Please leave me a world worth living in.

I just read this delightful story about 8 and 10 year olds making presentations to folks about earth friendly shopping in the North Salem Statesman Journal. That’s the way to go. Who can resist the sight of these cute kids saying, hey, please leave me a world worth living in. They're not asking for something difficult. Calico bags are elegant and affordable and we have all kinds of plans to fit them into almost any budget at all. See http://ourcity.badlani.com Here's the story: The first shopper was too good to be true. She rushed up to the Forest Ridge Elementary School students, eager to hear their talk about Earth-friendly shopping practices. OK, it was 8-year-old Bonnie Kerr’s grandmother, but she was good practice for the stream of other shoppers who got a lesson about recycling and reusing Friday. The Keizer students held informational signs as they offered recycling advice in front of the Keizer Roth’s store for National Youth Service Day. “When you use plastic or paper inside the store, they just get thrown away, and this is reusable, so you can use it every time you shop,” Garrett Medlock, 10, said as he held up a canvas shopping bag. “If you throw (plastic bags) away, it adds to our waste stream, and if you add to the waste stream, you are polluting and killing the Earth, basically.” The students are in Laurie Aguirre’s second-grade class and have been learning this school year about the eight R’s of conservation: reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, renew, rot, reject and react. The students know every angle of Earth-friendly shopping, including looking for recycling signs on labels and buying reusable items. They have a detailed slide-show presentation that they plan to give today at a booth at The Oregon Garden in Silverton. The class bought the canvas bags with a grant from The Mid-Valley Garbage and Recycling Association. Jolene Chandler donated a colorful logo embroidered on each bag. Shoppers who filled out a survey about Earth-friendly shopping were entered into a drawing for the bags. “Earth-friendly shopping is when you think about the Earth when you are shopping, like buy in bulk,” Bonnie Kerr started to say before being interrupted by her friend Alyssa Andretta. “Don’t buy items that are overpackaged,” Alyssa said. “Yeah, then you reduce trash,” Bonnie said. “Like chocolate Easter bunnies,” Alyssa offered as an example of excessive packaging. “They have paper, foil and plastic.”

No Bags, thanks!

I just read an article which says: “If you have an unusual use for plastic bags, the American Plastics Council would like to hear about it. We’ll consider publishing your idea on our website!” Got any ideas? If you do write to them, do please share your thoughts with me also. These guys have a vested interest in continuing the use of plastic bags, so their interest is of a different nature, but people like me, who are committed to convincing people to use reusable bags instead, also have to acknowledge that these evil things are so convenient and so cheap that people will continue to use them. Less people, I hope, but I have to be realistic. The uses these guys have found are really face savers, and a terrible waste of energy and resources, but it is a lot better than letting these bags be swallowed up by poor unsuspecting animals and marine life. But one day when someone has a really good idea, I’d love to know. For example, we have so many fisherfolk in India for whom wooden boats become expensive because wood decomposes and plastic might make longer lasting boats. Then, so many people could use a longer lasting material to make huts from and roofs from. How can this happen? Are there easy, low cost, low energy consuming technologies? There is plenty of manpower in India and if we could find a way to recycle plastic bags into such uses, w'd be making a win-win happen. Meanwhile, ABC Online has a wonderful webpage on this subject at http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/bags/

Who invented the shopping bag?

Walter H. Deubner, a grocer in St. Paul, Minnesota, observed that his customers’ purchases were limited by what they could conveniently carry. So he set about devising a way to help them buy more at one time. It took him four years to develop the right solution: a prefabricated package, inexpensive, easy to use-and strong enough to carry up to seventy-five pounds worth of groceries. The package consisted of a paper bag with cord running through it for strength. Deubner named his new product after himself, calling it the "Deubner Shopping Bag," and sold it for five cents. Deubner patented his product and within three years, by 1915, was selling over a million shopping bags a year. His invention, wonderful as it was, has since led to an ecological crisis. See www.badlani.com/blog/ To make paper shopping bags you need to cut down trees. A tree takes years to grow and you use a paper bag just once and throw it away. That is why most sensitive and aware people are saying no to paper shopping bags. Plastic is even worse. Plastic is a material that has a life of hundreds of years. It makes sense to use it for making canal linings or boats or roofs that need to withstand atmospheric degradation for long periods of time. It doesn’t make any sense to use it for shopping bags – something you will use once and throw away. But you can’t shop without shopping bags. It’s a good idea to use cotton shopping bags instead. They are re-usable, can be washed, and are completely environmentally benign. Or you could consider a jute shopping bag. Stylish texture and a long life. Cotton washes better. In fact, any fabric shopping bag is a good idea. Even if you use a man made fiber like nylon or polyester or polypropylene, which are not biodegradable like cotton and jute are, the fact that you re-use them makes them far kinder to the environment than plastic shopping bags are. Aren’t fabric bags more expensive? Yes, in the beginning they do appear to be. But just a wee bit. The fact that they get re-used soon makes them cheaper than any plastic bag. I make fabric bags in India. Look at my website www.badlani.com On my product pages, you'll be pleased to see how economical these great looking fabric bags can be. From the shop owner’s point of view they are much, much cheaper, because they display his name and logo every time they get re-used and become a walking billboard for him. The initial low price of a shopping bag hides another fact. That the eventual disposal of the plastic shopping bags you throw away is something that is costing you more and more in terms of taxes every year. So, here's my appeal to you as a fellow inhabitant of Earth. PLEASE switch to fabric shopping bags from today. Have a contrary point of view? Would you like to discuss this? Mail me at rajiv at badlani.com. I love a good discussion. A good argument is even more fun.

Plastic bags don't just fade away

In this story from the Capital Times in Wisconsin serious doubt is cast on the recyling programs that appear to be addressing the plastic bags problem. Here's what the story says: What happens to all those plastic bags that Copps invites us to bring in for recycling? A conscientious friend of mine asked at the service desk of one of the stores and was told they didn't know. She later asked at the municipal recycling center and was told the center doesn't handle bags and that they were probably just thrown out. So what's the story? When we take in those plastic bags are we doing good or just feeling good? • According to the Film and Bag Federation, a business unit of the Society of the Plastics Industry, by 1992 nearly half of U.S. supermarkets had recycling for plastic bags (kind of like being half in the bag). The city of Madison's Web site lists Kohl's Department Stores at East Towne and West Towne and Copps on Whitney Way and Shopko Drive as collection points. The city of Middleton says "please no plastic bags" in its curbside recycling brochure. Neither Kohl's nor Copps responded to inquiries by snail mail and e-mail about what they do with bags people may bring in. So maybe it is just a feel-good thing. Madison recycling coordinator George Dreckmann says the municipal recycling center doesn't handle bags. He suggested checking with GAR Plastics in Madison. That company also didn't respond to an e-mail query. The best advice is to use and reuse cloth or bags. You can wash and rewash them, too." I couldn't agree more. So much more elegant than leaving behind stuff that our grandkids will curse us for. We surely don't want to piss these guys off do we? Plastic bags may look cheaper to start with but extract a huge eventual price. Cloth bags are more affordable than most people think. Just see how affordable at www.badlani.com/bags/

Brand USA surprises and disappoints

More than the fact that it is the richest and most powerful country in the world, the USA has been the dream destination of the world because of its great values and the fact that it brings out the best from the people of diverse backgrounds that have gathered there to make it their home. Not surprising that with the best and the brightest it has become what it is today. Folks who are failures at home blossom and succeed in America because of its systems. They fail at home because their paternalistic governmental systems pull them down; they succeed in the US because its systems encourage questioning, individualism and success. I suspect that’s what Brand America stands for. Sometimes of course there are aberrations. The Gulf war and the prison abuse look like serious departures from its basic brand values, and similarly its reluctance to acknowledge the harm that plastic bags are doing to the world’s environment. One trillion plastic bags get thrown away every year, most of them in the US. About 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine animals are killed by plastic bags each year worldwide. On this front, others lead the world. Ireland was the first to introduce a tax on plastic bags. Usage dropped 90% the first year. Now Scotland is doing it, while South Africa and Taiwan and Bangladesh have already done so. Australia has taken the voluntary route and a very large number of retailers have signed agreements with the government to reduce usage. While claims vary between a reduction of 7% and 50%, some communities have gone completely plastic bag free (read some of the other blogs here). But the US hasn’t yet caught on. A recent story from an Indiana daily showed that while the statistical awareness exists, it hasn’t translated into knowledge or realization yet. Perhaps you’ll also want to read this http://badlani.com/bags/branding.htm

Re-usable shopping bags do make a difference!

Even as Planet Ark says 7% against the Australian environment minister Ian Campbell’s claim of 29%, the fact remains that Australia’s plastic bag usage has gone down substantially from the 6.9 billion plastic bags they used last year. Senator Campbell said the ARA's figures amounted to a reduction of more than half a billion bags. "If we maintain this effort we could slash plastics bags by over one billion by the end of the year," he said. It seems (says the Herald Sun) that the non-supermarket retailers haven’t kept pace with the big boys in this reduction effort. Now this could be because the average mom and pop store doesn’t have access to re-usable bags at the same low prices that supermarkets can get them for. Hello, Australian entrepreneurs. There’s all us bag manufacturers just waiting for someone to take advantage of that situation. See the collossal range we offer at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ . Talk to us today rajiv@badlani.com This is also an invitation to thinking entrepreneurs in other parts of the world to discuss their markets’ needs. Imagine making money while saving the world. I can’t think of a nicer business to be in. Can you?

What an absolutely delightful site

The Australian government needs to be congratulated for their work as seen at http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/calico_bag_challenge.htm . I wish our Indian government had such caring people. We make a large number of calico bags and will be happy to associate with anyone around the world willing to work to encourage their use and reduce the number of plastic bags that are fouling up our earth. See the range at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ . Currently playing: Basin Street Blues by some unknown guy who blows a mean sax... delightful!

Biodegradable plastic bags claim turns out to be a hoax

Isn't it kind of stupid, fellow citizens of earth, to take a strong material that lasts forever and waste it on an application where it is used once and then harms you forever, instead of using something that you can use again and again and which doesn't harm but enriches your soil even when its utility is through? The sensible solution is at my website. The dumb one is discussed below in a story called "Degradable bags can last years" By Melissa Fyfe - The Age, Australia Misleading and extravagant claims were being made about "degradable" plastic bags and their use could be harming the environment, an expert warns. The bags, which contain a chemical that eventually breaks down the plastic, are widely available at independent supermarkets such as Ritchies, and the plastic is also used to make some garbage and courier bags. They have become a popular alternative with some retailers, amid Government efforts to tackle Australia's 6.9-billion-a-year plastic bag problem. Professor Greg Lonergan, an Australian expert on the biodegradability of plastic, told The Age he had tested many of the bags and found the manufacturers' claims to be extravagant. "Generally, our experience (at the Swinburne University of Technology) testing degradable bags has been very poor," he said. "At this stage, if a bag says it is degradable I would treat that as meaningless - I would treat it as a normal bag. "The public have a perception that bags with the word 'degradable' means they will disappear quite quickly and that's not the case," he said. Professor Lonergan said that "degradable" was misleading, because everything eventually degrades, even if it takes hundreds or thousands of years, which may be the case with plastic. The question, he said, was how long it took to degrade. Tests at Swinburne showed the bags could last more than five years. Canadian company EPI, the major supplier of degradable plastic in Australia, said a bag will not start to break down for 18 to 24 months. After that, it depended on how much it was exposed to sunlight and stress. EPI chief executive Joseph Gho said the company had not done thorough tests under Australian conditions, but it was thought the bags would break down after three or four months if under direct Queensland sun. We've taken 10 to 12 years developing this technology and we've employed some world-class scientists to work with us, in the areas of degradability and biodegradability," said Mr Gho. There are other problems with this type of plastic. An expert report to the federal Environment Department last year found these types of "oxo-biodegradable" bags break down into smaller pieces of plastic that "might make them more attractive to smaller animals such as sea turtle hatchlings". The report The impacts of degradable plastic bags in Australia, also said the bags can contaminate the kerbside recycling of plastics, as the active chemical works to weaken and destabilise plastic. Professor Lonergan's comments come after the Federal Court last month found misleading claims were made about Earthstrength bags, widely available in supermarkets. Distributor Lloyd Brooks was ordered to stop supplying the bags, which it claimed would biodegrade in 28 days, and later admitted they could take years to biodegrade.

What are we doing to our world?

I just read an article Rob Crilly and Emma Newlands wrote for The Herald in Scotland about a whale that was washed up on the Hebridean coast. Its stomach was filled with plastic bags. More evidence that plastic bags are playing havoc with life as we know and love it. A recent survey found scraps of plastic inside 96% of seabirds tested. Marine creatures mistake plastic bags for food such as jellyfish or squid. Dr Dan Barlow, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "It's quite clear that plastic bags are a pollutant in their own right, and not only do they use a lot of resources in their production, but also because of the way they're disposed of. "The fact that a lot of marine life is being affected by plastic bags shows that we really need to levy some sort of plastic bag tax if we are to save resources and help the environment. The sooner this happens in Scotland the better." A plastic bag tax of about 15p introduced in Ireland in 2002 has cut their use by 90% and reduced litter. Research revealed at the weekend also suggested that many seabirds were being turned into living dustbins. The study by Dutch scientists of fulmars, gull-like seabirds which nest around Britain's coast, showed that 367 of 382 birds studied had ingested plastic waste. About a million birds and 100,000 mammals and turtles are estimated to become entangled in marine rubbish around the world each year. Surface-feeding species of bird, such as albatrosses, shearwaters, petrels and gulls, are the most susceptible to eating debris. An autopsy on a Minke whale in France in April 2002 found just under 1lb of plastics in its stomach, including two English supermarket plastic bags. A leatherback turtle washed ashore in Scotland in the 1990s showed that it appeared to have died from starvation caused by plastic and metal litter blocking its digestive tract. What makes this most tragic is how easily avoidable this is. All we need to do is to carry cloth bags with us when we go shopping (leave a few in the car, have a depository at all our local shops, there are many solutions). Most humans have no concept of the scale of this problem. Now that you’ve read this, I hope you will stop using plastic bags from this moment. If you’d like to take a little initiative to encourage your friends to also do so, write to me, I have a method to suggest.

Would you have a bag manufacturer make a tent for you?

Winning a customer’s trust is what makes it happen for us. Clearly, the folks who run the Bahrain Exhibition Center were happy with the bags we’ve been doing for them so when they had a need for a colossal “tent” for a major event, they chose to discuss it with us. From fabric selection to fireproofing to fabrication, we enjoyed the challenge of dealing something totally new for us. Finding ways to communicate all the zillions of variables with our customers was also an exercise that gave us learning and joy. We had a few anxious moments, but Sanjiv manages to make the most challenging manufacturing issues look simple and do-able. But the real joy came when they told us they were thrilled with the result and sent us a link to their event website www.asiaitsummit2005.com. Thank you Cheryl and Klaus from all of us at Norquest. Thank you for your confidence in our abilities. Got a challenge for us, anyone? We will enjoy working with you.

Why would people to PAY YOU to carry YOUR advertisement?

This isn’t some ad man’s wild pipe dream. In a world of skyrocketing media costs, here’s an amazing true story. I read this at http://www.poconorecord.com/lifestyl/alh97889.htm Columnist Martin Sloane contributed a story encouraging people to switch to reusable cloth bags, and here is reader Louise Fail wrote in: Dear Martin: At our local 99-cent store they sell a lovely, large reusable tote bag. Of course it carries some advertising, but I really do not mind! I bought four of them. One is for trips to the library. The other three reside in my car so I have them when I go to the grocery stores. I feel I am doing my share to preserve the environment and conserve the oil that is used to make plastic bags. Louise Fail Folks don’t much care to hear alarmist talk about environmental degradation, but the story is inexorably going home. They don’t like being passive victims of this sweeping phenomenon either. Most want to do something positive. You could cash in on this huge groundswell of feeling to get your message across in a manner that your stakeholders are actually willing to invest in. The big boys haven’t caught on to this yet. This remains an opportunity for the nimble and the imaginative. Dramatic isn’t it? Louise paid 99 cents to become a walking billboard for the brand whose name is on that bag. She doesn’t mind that it carries advertising. Ever heard of such a thing? All you smart marketing folks out there might want to leverage this insight. We can ship you smart, great looking cotton totes at less than a dollar a bag, with your ad message on them. Sell them at cost or even a little below cost to make them look even more attractive. Make them available at as many outlets as you can. You’ll be amazed to see how many people support your environmentally friendly action. Sounds good? See http://www.badlani.com/bags and select from a line of attractive bags you can use to co-opt your customers into becoming walking billboards for your message. At no cost to you!

Plastic bags should carry a mandatory warning

Most North Americans urinate plastics. Sperm counts are at a historic per capita low. Cancer is an epidemic. Shouldn’t plastic bags be made to carry this mandatory warning? There are no safe plastics; all plastics migrate toxins into whatever they contact at all times. Tax the bags, say Californians Against Waste. And I completely agree. It works. Ireland taxed 'em just 12 cents and usage fell 90% in one year. How's that for effective? There is a proposal to tax grocery shoppers of San Francisco 17 cents per bag. Why 17 cents? Because that’s the cost citizens of San Francisco are already paying in general taxes for some of the costs of plastic-bag trash, such as cleaning up the litter and unclogging the waste system. Northern Californians Against Plastic presented figures to show that if each of the 347,000+ households in San Francisco were to purchase a couple of cotton or canvas bags, over the approximate 10-year life of those bags the total amount saved -- compared to everyone using eight bags each week at 17 cents each -- by consumers would collectively be over $300 million. And, the bag fee would mean revenue to fund programs for the poor such as free reusable natural-fiber bags. The Chronicle and the Commission on Environment (the San Francisco body putting the bag fee proposal to the Supervisors for an ordinance) have this new information. You know what? Reusable cloth bags are the only sustainable answer. And they aren't as expensive as you thought. We, at Norquest can make lovely cloth bags available to shoppers at just 99 cents a bag (that’s just the tax they’d pay on 4 bags!). Just look at the reusable cloth bags we have on offer at www.badlani.com/bags/ - see how nice they look and then see how little they cost.

Sad saga of a plastic bag. A good read.

I've just copied this story from globeandmail.com. I think it makes a great read! Imagine this happening all over as it is bound to if we don't find a way to stop people from using plastic bags. Reusable bags are so much more logical and so affordable at you can see at www.badlani.com A sad saga of a plastic bag We're told to be careful what we wish for and I believe this to be sage advice. By ELAINE OPHUS Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Page A20 While driving to work recently, I was struck by the sight of a plastic grocery bag being blown down the street by the wind, rolling along in a swirl of dust like some kind of modern-day urban tumbleweed. Suddenly I was back in Edmonton, and it was winter, 1994. Of the 18 winters I spent in Alberta, this was the coldest, the longest, the dreariest. Even the platitudes that usually brought comfort weren't working. ("It's a dry cold." "It's a sunny cold." Ha.) As December dragged into January, then February, the prospect of spring seemed to be receding rather than approaching. Our house backed onto a busy four-lane thoroughfare. The level of the backyard was somewhat higher than the avenue itself, and a tall privacy fence screened the yard from the traffic noise. Outside the fence was a sparse row of trees growing on a flat, grassy berm, which then sloped sharply to the street. These trees were so slender as to be spindly, and so tall that only their topmost branches were visible from the backyard. The view from the top floor took in the yard, the street and the upper half of the spindly trees. One morning, around what seemed like the 53rd of February, I glanced out the bedroom window while getting ready for work. Something fluttered in the breeze near the top of one of the trees on the berm. It took me a minute to realize it was a plastic grocery bag, complete with red Safeway logo, clinging to a leafless branch by one handle. The way it was flapping about I was sure it would disentangle itself and blow away. Off to work I went, without giving it another thought. The next morning I looked out the window again. Now the bag had secured itself by both handles to the branch (only a twig, really) which became a flagpole (bag pole?) as the bag billowed and fluttered with every passing breeze. As the days passed, it showed no signs of loosening its grip on the tree, although the wind was at times quite strong. By the time March departed in its usual lion-like fashion, I was sick of snow-covered ground. Tired of landscape with no colours except brown and grey and white. (Well, there was the red 'S' on the bag, which I did my best to pretend was a yin. Or maybe a yang.) Most of all, I was tired of the sight of the bag, which in my mind had grown somehow to become a smirking, gloating, animate object. No, worse: it loomed like a symbol of the triumph of rampant consumerism over nature. It taunted me, it stuck out its imaginary red tongue at me. If the window hadn't frozen shut I might even have leaned out and shrieked at it. Now, at this point you might be inclined to dismiss me as a flake, a bleeding-heart liberal tree-hugger. So be it. But my theory is that I was suffering from an accumulation of winter misery. By this point in my life I had just had too many minus-30 degree days; too many hours spent bundling the kids into snowsuits only to have them play outside for mere minutes; had once too often lost my bedding plants to an early June frost. I couldn't bear the thought that soon the tentative, emerging leaves would be smothered by this plastic nuisance. On impulse, I walked down the street and around the fence and climbed up the berm, thinking that perhaps I could pull the flexible sapling branch down far enough to release the bag. Quickly I realized the futility of this: the tree was at least 20 feet tall, and much too flimsy to climb. I returned home, discouraged but not ready to give up yet. The next morning I phoned city hall. I was transferred three times, but each person I spoke to listened politely to my tale of woe, and I was eventually connected to the public works maintenance department. Making a conscious effort not to come across as some kind of kook, I explained why I was calling. The voice on the other end assured me that the next time they had a truck in that area they would look after it. I assumed they were just humoring me, but even having made the effort lifted my winter-weary spirits a little. When I got home that evening and went upstairs, I glanced out the window before closing the curtains. My jaw dropped; I did a double take. The bag was gone! Vamoosed! Took a powder! I was dumbfounded. There was no way it could suddenly have blown away. Not after nearly two months of being so securely fastened to the tree, through wind and blizzard and dark of night. We're told to be careful what we wish for and I believe this to be sage advice. You might think that trouncing my little synthetic friend would be deeply satisfying, but you would be wrong; by the next morning my euphoria had worn off. Humph, I thought to myself. No wonder our taxes are so bloody high, if they can afford to send out a truck every time some stupid piece of plastic gets caught in a tree. I think I'll phone city hall and complain about this extravagant misuse of expensive resources. I hope they at least recycled the bag. Elaine Ophus lives in Kelowna, B.C.

Forgive the plugs folks, they’re for a good cause!

Alex Steffan, who writes a brilliant blog at http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002465.html noticed my blog and wrote “I love obsessive geekery for a good cause, and I believe I have stumble upon the Ur-site, the Platonic example of the form: the Badlani blog which focuses, essentially entirely, on news about the ongoing global efforts to reduce our use of plastic bags. Yes, that's right: it's an anti-plastic bag blog. Pretty good one, too, full of interesting little tidbits like San Francisco's implementation of a 17-cents-a-bag bag tax (jargon watch for the day: tax on plastic bags = "plastax").” But he wasn’t entirely thrilled as he adds “(The only bummer with Badlani is the authors' relentless hawking of their own cotton bags. We get it, they sell bags. So do others, like Reusablebag.com's Vincent Cobb. No need to remind us every post.). I take his point. Repetitive and relentless promotion can become tedious, but I feel virtuous doing it because Higher listings = more vistors = more fabric bags sold = less plastic bags plaguing our world. So, folks, bear with the plugs if you will, and in fact, spread the word if you agree! But I did need reminding of that, so thanks, Alex! Please note the absence of a plug in this blog.

Psychostrategy for your next trade show

When you’re headed for your next trade show, consider reusable fabric bags as your giveaway. Visitors love receiving them because it facilitates carrying all the literature they collect. The fact that folks will carry them around the show displaying your logo and plugging your presence is only the immediate benefit. Much after the show is over, they will still be using them (no one throws them away) and literally become a walking billboard for you. But there’s more. People are becoming increasingly aware of the harm that plastic bags do and when your logo is seen on an eco-friendly substitute for plastic bags, your brand gets positioned in their mindspace as one of the “good guys”. This follows from a very basic logic. People don’t want to be bombarded with your marketing message. They prefer to unravel a subtle message themselves. If this contradicts what some marketing bozos have told you, check out the logic on yourself. When someone is telling you a joke and you can figure the punchline even before he completes his story, that joke doesn’t break you apart and, chances are you don’t remember that story. But when someone tells you a joke and it takes you a few seconds to figure out what was funny about it, when you start laughing, you can’t stop. And, you tend to remember that story, right? A marketing professor once explained this phenomenon to me. When you don’t immediately “get it” it challenges and engages your mind. That brief engagement is what makes some things memorable and others get forgotten fast. Get it? These quiet little bags are amazingly attractive and economical. You will not believe how affordable they are so come check them out on our website http://www.badlani.com/bags/