Recycling is a hoax says Californians Against Waste

"Recycling" and future "bioplastics" they say “distract people from keeping plastic out of their lives”. "Disposal" of plastics is a joke, they say, because we are never rid of the stuff. All the plastic that's ever been produced is still with us today... unless, of course, it has been incinerated which spews a plethora of toxic substances into the air. Paul Goettlich is the director of Mindfully.org, a nonprofit dedicated to exposing the effects and costs of technology on our bodies and society. The plastics section on Mindfully.org is the most extensive holistic set of documents and scientific data that exists on plastics. "There are no safe plastics," Goettlich says. "The tendency of environmental organizations is to proclaim what the worst or the best plastics are, so we can go on using them. It is ill conceived and does not address the relevant issues. All plastics migrate toxins into whatever they contact at all times. It does not matter if it is water- or oil-based; hot or cold; solid or liquid," says Goettlich. "The concept of "biodegradable plastic" is at best a ploy by industry meant to divert our focus away from the real problem: single-use containers and packaging. Time to recognize that use-once-and-throw-away is not a sustainable way of life. Reusable bags are a sensible, attractive and affordable answer. See how little they cost at www.badlani.com/bags/ What's your opinion? Is a switch to reusable bags desirable? Or is it impractical in any way?

Its your health. You decide how important that plastic bag is to you.

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. Do you agree? Or am I making too much of this issue?

360 degree branding, part II, OR why toilet paper matters

I just wrote an article about 360 degree branding and then read this brilliant article from by Guy Smith at http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/smith1.asp He’s said it so well. Just look at how he starts off “ There is a legendary story about Starbucks, its brand, and toilet paper...” I wish I could write like that. Who can stop reading after an opening like this? He uses the words Brand Touchpoints. Its an apt term. Read the story From within the offices of Starbucks, a branding guru had summarized the Starbucks brand into an extremely concise brand statement: A great coffee experience. This brand statement encompassed the Starbucks store design, bean selection, barista personalities… even its toilet paper. It seems that some smart guru hired by Starbucks wanted to downgrade from two-ply to one-ply toilet paper in store restrooms. He calculated a significant cost savings based on deep analysis of the comparative cost of toilet paper, the number of Starbuck stores, how many rolls per year were needed… and so on. But Starbucks didn't agree, and the stores kept the thicker two-ply paper to preserve their "great coffee experience." Quite literally, Starbucks was worried about all branding touchpoints. Makes so much sense, doesn’t it? Your brand, as perceived by the only legitimate judges—your customers—is the sum of all their interactions with your company. Every place a customer can interact with your company is a touchpoint, and that touchpoint affects how you are perceived. A lousy experience with one touchpoint can negate all the brand equity you build in other touchpoints. When Microsoft releases a security patch that creates more openings for hackers, its brand is diminished. That is why toilet paper matters. You bet. Everything matters. Brands are composites. Like human beings are. When you see someone smile with their mouth and when that smile doesn’t reach their eyes, what do you conclude? Let's look at the high-tech market as an example. A customer, whether an IT or consumer electronics buyer, interacts with your brand both directly and indirectly, through promotions, sales, product use, technical support, up-sale opportunities and more. All these factors contribute to a customer's impression of your brand. To create and manage your brand—in short, to make the market think and feel what you want them to—you must create your brand through all these touchpoints. Sony consumer electronics is a depressingly good case. Sony is widely perceived as an inventive company with poor product quality and service. Innovation and product turnover drive Sony's corporate culture. But its brand never evolves past that barrier because Sony fails to carry any other brand initiative through touchpoints beyond the sale. Remember, this guy is in the US. Sitting here in India I can relate to what he says about Sony. It’s a relatively standoffish brand. Not one that invites closeness. Despite having their logo on 2 of the biggest TV channels here. High-tech companies have a number of brand touchpoints and should evaluate how their desired brand is (or is not) being managed through those points of customer contact. You need to create you own list by determining every interaction that your customer has with your company and products. I'll get you started by listing the more common ones. Promotions: Back before the Carly era, Hewlett-Packard was perceived as a great technology company that could not market its own wares. The standard industry joke was that if HP were to market sushi, it would advertise it as "cold, dead fish, low on intestinal parasites." Promotions are where customers first encounter your brand. Like flirting in a bar, it is a process of attraction on superficial touchpoints. Sadly, inexperienced marketing people create promotional images that do not match the product or company brands—or perhaps the company fails to live up to the image rightfully created by marketing. Regardless, this creates disappointment later in the customer relationship. If your promotions reflect a brand image you want to develop, the rest of your company has to reinforce that image. Failure to do so will rapidly create a consensus in the market that your promotions are misleading and that you cannot be trusted. In the IT market—where customer expenditures can be millions of dollars—mismatched promotions and delivery can be fatal. IT buyers want to build long-term relationships with vendors—and, as we all know, relationships are built on trust. Violate that trust, and the customer has every reason to abandon the relationship. I’m really so happy to read this just minutes after I wrote the previous blog. Sales Engagement: Salespeople are the first human interactions customers have with your brand (this is under the broad assumption that sales people are human, something yet to be scientifically proven). This applies regardless of products category or channel. For example, in the consumer electronics space, your salespeople may be working for Best Buy or Circuit City (and thus are not entirely within your control). Poorly coached salespersons can destroy your brand more quickly than a defective product because they prevent the sale from ever happening. And he reinforces my belief in my favorite statement. Brands are what brands so. Say what you like, at the end of the day people are going to judge you by what you do. And it all comes down to behavior. Salespeople must project your brand, whatever you have decided that to be. If you are a low-cost provider, your sales team needs to be fast and efficient in helping a customer reach a buy decision. If your brand is based on great customer service, your salespeople need to listen first, then meet your customer's every need. Regardless of your specific positioning, you must train and enculturate your sales teams to project your brand. As an aside, let me note that I live in fear of salespeople with PowerPoint presentations. Most spend your customer's time explaining why their products are so great and why their company is wonderful, and almost no time listening and learning what their customers need and want. After 30 slides of marketing effluvium, these self-absorbed sales types might actually ask a question, and might receive an answer if the customer is still awake. Product Demos: For IT vendors, product demos are the very first interaction that customers have with your product. Your product must live up to the brand image that your advertising and sales people created. (Are you starting to see a layered effect in branding?) Examine with a cold eye what your brand claims are and what the demo actually presents. If they are too different, then it is best to restrain product releases until everything is in harmony. The two most common branding disasters with IT product demos are the "beta hack" and the "ease-of-use" lie: Beta hack demo: All too often, a vendor is tempted to rush products out before they are ready. Under the top-line-revenue gun, it releases what should be considered beta test versions as the final product. This can be fatal in all technology markets, but it is especially acute for IT vendors. IT departments require stability as well as functionality for all products. Deliver beta test code as a final product, and you immediately destroy a core brand element. Ease-of-use lie: The ability to easily use a product is a primary customer touchpoint. If your brand is built in part on an ease-of-use promise, you better deliver—because there is no way to mask poor usability. We’ve each one of us experienced this ourselves, haven’t we? You’d imagine the folks who send these guys out would also have been through this and learned from their own experiences, wouldn’t you? Specially the next parameter: Support: Technical support is the ultimate customer touchpoint. It creates (or breaks) human bonds and can often involve more hours of inter-company interaction than all other phases of the relationship. Support services are where customers build or lose trust with a vendor after having been beguiled by the advertising, charmed by the salesperson, and convinced by the product demo. (Did I mention that branding has a layered effect?) Sadly, few technology companies educate their tech-support teams on the company brand and how to meet the expectations created through the promotion and sales process. Negative customer support images are greatly exaggerated by automated email response systems that incorrectly categorize a customer request and reply with unhelpful answers. Training technical support staff in branding is not difficult and has amazing benefits. Long ago, I managed a support group for a company that had a corporate motto of "we make happy customers." I indoctrinated the support team with war stories about the founder and how he went out of his way to make sure every customer knew how to get the most out of the product. I also made it plainly obvious that I conducted random customer satisfaction calls from tech support logs (people never do what you tell them, but they do what you inspect). My surveys indicated we had very happy customers, and not because the product was sexy (it drove pagers) or that it was easy to use (it didn't even have a GUI). They were happy because we helped them be successful with the product—we created happy customers. Upsell and Ongoing Relationship: Sales people have jobs after the initial sale is complete. There are always opportunities to upsell customers and fatten revenues. Likewise, there are always opportunities to destroy your brand after the sale. Upsell opportunities typically vanish in two ways: either the brand value was destroyed after the sale due to poor product design or support, or the sales person/system failed to correctly map the customer's situation and needs. I once knew an IT software salesperson who was great at moving product and stunk at upselling. In every case, he failed to stay close to his accounts after the initial sale was closed. Thus, he never heard their complaints, concerns, suggestions, or understood where gaps existed between what he had sold and what they needed next. When he did finally waltz back into the customer's offices, he would suffer a near endless barrage of verbal, and occasionally physical, insubordination from peeved clients. The point is that to upsell, you have to have as good a grip on the customer's situation as you did at the initial sale. Often, with IT products, the salesperson correctly addresses the strategic desires of customers when making the initial sale. But, just as often, the salesperson cannot grip the more tactical realities of the post-sale world, and thus the upsell opportunities available. This level of fumbling depletes the brand equity created through the rest of the process. Touchy, Touchy, Touchy: Executives need to understand one point with crystal clarity: your brand is communicated with every customer interaction. From your promotions, to your documentation, to your technical support, right down to the cheerfulness of your receptionist—your brand is defined, projected, enforced or depleted. Defining your brand is the easy part. Your ongoing job is to drive that brand through every part of your organization and any organization that works on your behalf, such as your channels. In other words, if Starbucks worries about toilet paper, you should worry about all the plies in your organization. Guy Smith, who wrote this wonderful article, is the founder of Silicon Strategies Marketing (www.SiliconStrat.com), a marketing firm that specializes in strategic marketing and market development for technology companies. Guy has a background as a technologist for NASA, McDonnell Douglas, and Circuit City and remains active in technology, primarily within the Open Source community. I suspect Guy would agree with me when I say that you must take pains to ensure that all the behaviour your company of your company reflects what you want it to say. Most of the time it breaks down at the last mile. One junior guy doing something that contradicts the reputation you’ve spent millions of dollars and years to build. He didn’t mean any harm, poor chap. No one bothered to explain to him what you’ve been striving towards. So, he dos what he thinks is right. Like putting your logo on a plastic bag for instance, and making a statement on your behalf that says: “We know that use-once-and-throw is irresponsible behaviour, particularly when using a material that will take 3000 years to biodegrade and will leave huge problems for future generations, but because using plastic is cheaper than reusable cloth bags, we’re going to be irresponsible anyway. We don’t think you’re smart enough to figure all this out and who cares what you think anyway” Ouch! If you’re the head of a company that sets serious store by your brand values this probably made you wince. There are better and very affordable alternatives available at www.badlani.com/bags Cloth bags get reused as many as 500 times and putting your logo on one is a great way to express your brand values. Write to me at rajiv at badlani.com and we'll be happy to design a program specially suited to your brand story and your audiences

360 degree branding

Shelley Lazarus, the head of Ogilvy, talks about 360 degree branding here http://www.ogilvy.com/360/ . Take the time to visit. It’s well worth it. Even if you’re not in marketing. In fact, it is more relevant to the heads of companies than to marketing people. The concept is simple and powerful. Your brand (and this includes corporate brands), must be relevant to your customer; must stand for something that she or he values; something he considers meaningful. Then, all your communication; ALL of it, must consistently reflect exactly those values. Not just in what you say, but also in what you DO. Because you have no control over what your stakeholders’ opinion of your brand is. That is something they determine themselves. And they don’t go only by claims. A brand is what a brand does. Quite obviously, if what you say is contradicted by what you do, your credibility suffers. And if they can’t trust you, you’re dead in the water. You might as well close shop and go home. You can say you are gorgeous, but must you say it on an eyesore of a hoarding? Behaving this way doesn't make sense and companies aren't getting away with it as easily as they used. Except for those rare companies that have a monopoly product. Which, in today’s day and age, is not an easy thing to achieve. 360 degree branding is a far easier and more logical alternative. People want to deal with people they trust. So, make sure that all the behaviour of your company reflects what you want it to say. Most of the time it breaks down at the last mile. One junior guy doing something that contradicts the reputation you’ve spent millions of dollars and years to build. Like putting your logo on a plastic bag for instance, and making a statement on your behalf that says: “We know that use-once-and-throw is irresponsible behaviour, particularly when using a material that will take 3000 years to biodegrade and will leave huge problems for future generations, but because using plastic is cheaper than reusable cloth bags, we’re going to be irresponsible anyway. We don’t think you’re smart enough to figure all this out and who cares what you think anyway” Ouch! If you’re the head of a company that sets serious store by your brand values this probably made you wince. There are better and very affordable alternatives available at www.badlani.com/bags Cloth bags get reused as many as 500 times and putting your logo on one is a great way to express your brand values. Write to me at rajiv at badlani.com and we'll be happy to design a program specially suited to your brand story and your audiences.

Welcome to the world PLENTY magazine

Here’s a completely new genre of magazines. Not restricting itself to the folks who give ecological living a dowdy image, these guys are telling you that a sustainable lifestyle needn’t be boring or lacking pizzazz. In fact, it’s a whole new aesthetic. Their website is http://www.plentymag.com/ In a well written story about the launch of this magazine, James Gorman of the New York Times says “Her name is Abigail. She comes from Ford Models in New York. And her outfit is accessorized with a hose from a gasoline pump that she has covered with her hand as if it were a tempting, but forbidden, pleasure.” I love it. Good sense going stylish, ecological concerns being taken mainstream. Hats off to the guys who thought this concept up. I hope they are a huge success and lots of folks follow their lead. I completely agree. I suspect if the world just saw how attractive and economical our cotton and jute bags are many would swear off plastic and carry them for the sheer pleasure of using a great looking product. http://www.badlani.com/bags/

EcoLogical behaviour makes good business sense...

Cherri Gann, associate editor at PPAI wrote an article in December 2004 where she concluded that bags are a wonderful promo choice. “One great thing about bags is that everybody uses them,” says Andrew Spellman, vice president of corporate markets for TRG Group in St. Louis, Missouri. “Since everyone has stuff to hold, there’s not one person who doesn’t have a bag of some sort. Promotionally speaking, there’s an inherent use value for the recipient, and this means, for the advertiser, there’s the frequent opportunity for seeing the company logo.” Carol Goebelt, in LaPuente, California, adds they go beyond function: “Besides suiting the need for function, people buy bags for style. They are an extension of the person, and different styles may fit one person but not another. I completely agree. In today’s world one-size-fits-all just doesn’t cut it. That’s why, at Norquest, we encourage our customers to customize what they are ordering. No fixed notions, no minimums, we don’t put any limits on our customers’ imaginations. It’s our job to make whatever they dream up and we enjoy it. What goes into choosing a great bag? “Find out exactly who the audience is,” says Mary Jo Welch. “Men are not tote bag people and will use them only when necessary whereas women love them. If kids are involved, a drawstring backpack might do the best job of covering all the bases.” Ahh, that I disagree with. When we're told the audience is male, we design totes that appeal to males. But that, as they say, is another blog. Coming soon... Bags do work. Everyone loves receiving an attractive bag. And we’ve got plenty. See the variety at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ And then do remember to see the product pages and see how economically they are priced. Good looking, economical, and something that everybody wants. Isn’t that how you’d like your next promotion to be?

Coles bay shows the way!

Some people are succeeding in doing completely without plastic bags. The Mercury, an Australian daily tells of how the tourist town of Coles Bay celebrated their first plastic bag free anniversary! Here's what the story said: President of Coles Bay/Freycinet Tourism Association and bakery owner Ben Kearney said an estimated 350,000 plastic bags had been saved from the environment or landfill. You've got to hand it to these guys. The Australians are achieving a lot even without the tax. On a voluntary basis they seem to be moving people towards using cloth bags instead. Sadly most of the world still thinks cloth bags are expensive. They aren't. See how affordable they are in my bags section http://www.badlani.com/bags/ , and then take a moment to do some calculations. Imagine if a savvy company sponsored the reusable cotton bags that got used instead. One of these is used instead of almost 500 plastic bags. So, sponsoring 7000 cotton bags would have made them the hero of this story. 7000 cotton bags would have cost less than $ 5000. Try and equate the goodwill earned with spending $ 5000 on advertising. The two just don't match. This is a huge branding opportunity.

You too can be admired like Patagonia and Body Shop are

Patagonia and Body Shop are just two of the New Age brands that have built their appeal on EcoLogic; meaning a deep and sincere respect for the environment. You don’t need mega bucks to earn that kind of respect. As long as you are sincere and act on your beliefs. Saying so across a million ugly hoardings will achieve less than one customer walking out of your store carrying a reusable cloth bag with your logo on it. Every consumer who looks ate it will know that you act on what you believe. This is what Patagonia says: Our company mission statement: "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis", gives us purpose and urgency. You can make the same statement when you hand out cloth bags. And for less than you think. See what we have to offer at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ and then write to me if you’d like to plan a strategy based on good sense. I respect folks who want to achieve miracles on tight budgets, and I enjoy working with them rajiv@badlani.com

PPP – The Polluter Pays Principle

Malta today imposed a tax on plastic bags. Smart guys. They have one of the most beautiful environments in the world and they intend to keep it that way. Amazing how the little countries catch on fast. God was so kind to the US in so many ways, but their government doesn’t seem to have caught on to such a simple logic. Plastic bags are bad for your environment. Taxing them reduces usage sharply. So, instead of raising taxes and making everyone pay for cleaning up that problem, why not focus the tax on the folks who are making the mess? Ireland introduced a tax and plastic bag usage fell by 90%. How many times… asked Bob Dylan... The answer this time is visibly blowing in the wind! Everywhere you look. Used plastic bags littering every tree, every bush, every fence! Stupid, when attractive reusable bags are so economical. See how attractive and how economical our shopping bags are at http://www.badlani.com/bags/shoppingbags.htm

Thank you, Winston Churchill, Thank you Hansard Society!

Winston Churchill founded The Hansard Society in 1944 to ensure that government remained truly representative of the peoples’ wishes. Today it sees weblogs as a powerful medium for the expression of these wishes and encourages parliamentarians in England to become familiar and recognize this medium as the basis of e-governance. At their site http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/programmes/e-democracy/blog_intro they’ve listed 9 weblogs as commanding “respect in the ‘blogosphere’”. One of these is this blog, the one you are reading at this very moment! Feels good, to have someone say nice things about us. Thank you, Hansard Society! Also feels good to have the message acknowledged that plastic bags are a menace, that this issue is one of substantial consequence and that far better alternatives are available in the form of reusable bags (see them at http://www.badlani.com/bags/shoppingbags.htm

San Fransisco sees the light

CBS News today carried a story saying that San Francisco officials believe that the city spends 5.2 cents per bag annually for street litter pickup and 1.4 cents per bag for extra recycling costs. San Francisco may become the first city in the United States to charge shoppers for grocery bags. The city's environmental commission is expected to ask the mayor and board of supervisors Tuesday to consider a 17 cent per bag charge on paper and plastic grocery bags. Their goal is to reduce plastic bag pollution. Plastic bags jam machinery, pollute waterways and often end up in trees. They are also ingested by wild life and cause them to suffer even as they die premature deaths. Officials believe that the city spends 5.2 cents per bag annually for street litter pickup and 1.4 cents per bag for extra recycling costs. Grocers and bag manufacturers argue that many people already reuse their plastic bags. But you know and I know that this is not true. How many times have you reused a plastic bag? Maybe once in a blue moon. Other interested opponents call the plan an unfair and regressive tax on shoppers. I’m sure you will agree that this argument is facile. Far better, more attractive options exist in the form of reusable fabric bags. See the fantastic range available at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ and then click on various styles to be pleasantly surprised at how economical they are. Considering that each of our bags gets reused between 100 and 500 times, they are much, much cheaper than plastic or paper bags

Australia values its ecology more than most countries

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation today announced that a man named Australia's local hero for 2005, is a baker from the island state of Tasmania. Ben Kearney, 32, of Coles Bay, was nominated for the award by community members, for his efforts in ridding the tourist resort of plastic bags. The town has since become a model for community-based environmental campaigners throughout Australia. Mr Kearney accepted his award during Australia Day festivities in Canberra, and says he will share it with Coles Bay residents." They've supported me from day one with this idea and have been really enthusiastic and have worked as hard as I've worked to make it the success that it is," he said. "So, I really consider this award to be really about the community." The Australians are achieving great things without even taxing plastic bags, through positive action. Makes so much sense. Environmentally friendlier bags are attractive and affordable. See how attractive and affordable at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Ecological Economics.

My compliments to Arrissia Owen Turner for the well written article titled "Paper, plastic and pocketbook-could bag charge hit Big Bear?" Her article appears here http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/ In her article she's said "For, say, a family of four who buys maybe 14 bags worth of groceries during a weekly trip to the grocery store, that would be an additional $2.38. If half of those bags get double bagged, that would be $3.57. Plenty of penny-pinchers aren't pleased. If instead they were to buy eight canvas bags at $4.99 each (canvas bags hold more groceries than plastic or paper bags and the bottom never falls out), the family would save money within 11 trips to the store." Here are some facts that make fabric bags even more attractive. From the shop owner’s point of view they are much, much cheaper than giving away plastic bags, because fabric bags get reused as many as 500 times and display his name and logo every time they get re-used and become a walking billboard for him. If a few Big Bear store owners got together and imported fabric bags from us in India, they would cost them just 99 cents, not the $ 4.99 price you might expect. With customized names and logos attractively printed for each store, even if they are ordering just a few hundred bags each. I mean this quite seriously. See how attractive and economical fabric bags can be at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ Californians are leading the way. This is the only way the world will survive. Our planet cannot sustain the present levels of dumping of a million plastic bags a minute.

Rhode Island realises plastic bags disposal cost

Daniel H. Trafford is the managing editor of the Kent County Daily Times and he’s written a article on a $250,000 advertising campaign to be launched to combat the problem of plastic bags blowing in the wind. It seems that their community spends about $1 million annually just picking up these bags that blow all over the place from trash being delivered to the Central Landfill. It’s nice that they’re catching on. It would be even nicer if they followed the lead of places like Coles Bay in Australia. He’s also mentioned how he, as a kid working in a store, encountered how some people make a hoax of recycling. He’s one of the few that had the guts to object and it appears that his action led others to object too. Click on more to read the full article. I just wrote Daniel a mail hoping he will ask his community to look at the attractive options that exist at www.badlani.com/bags/

Plastic bags are killing marine life. Colliers County catches on.

I just read a story by Eric Staats in the Naples Daily News about how the Colliers County tourism promotion guys had to give up their plans to give away plastic bags to tourists for shell collection when the county environment experts intervened. Nancy Payton, field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation praised the decision to pull the bags off the beach. Like most folks in the US they appear not to be aware that for just a little more than the plastic bags were costing them, they could have imported re-usable fabric bags from us. Attractive totes like the one you see in the picture, which would have been carried home by tourists, who would have become walking billboards for the Colliers County tourism message every time they re-used the bags. I’m sure if they’d known how attractive and economical our bags are; see them at http://www.badlani.com/bags ; they’d have opted for them. I’m just sending a mail to Eric Staats hoping he will pass on the message.

How to save a billion plastic bags from choking our planet

This little polypropylene bag is an absolute wonder. It has cut plastic bag usage in Australia by 1.18 billion plastic bags. That’s a lot of bags. The Australian carried an article about this in their issue of March 12th. Trends, says futurist John Naisbitt, are like horses, easier to ride in the direction they are going. Catch a trend early and you can use it to your advantage. And ecological concerns, especially about the harm plastic bags are doing to our environment, is one that is going is going to get a huge amount of public attention, particularly in the US. Considering we can deliver these to you at less than 75 cents, our #B06 bag is a great vehicle for you to use as a brand building device for your company. See these and some other great promotional items at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

See what plastic bags do to your countryside

Kathryn B. Brown, a family health nursing professional, points out in the East Oregonian that using plastic bags and drinking bottled water isn’t good for people. “All this unnecessary plastic in our world is unhealthy for people and the environment” she says, contrasting her own environment with what she observed in countries that are taxing plastic bags, “the difference was the lack of plastic trash” Those countries don't see this kind of sight any longer. I'm sure Kathryn would approve of the attractive and economical shopping bags we offer at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Welsh take note of Ireland’s plastic bag tax’s success

A story in the Daily Post reported The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is renewing its demands for government action after an increase in plastic-based litter on beaches in Wales during its annual Beachwatch survey. Andrea Crump, MCS's litter projects co-ordinator, said a tax on plastic bags in Ireland reduced waste by 90%. "Plastics such as nets and bags are known to entangle marine animals, which can drown as a result, she added, "bags and small plastic pieces can also be swallowed by marine animals, such as turtles and whales, which may then starve as a result." People easily adjust to doing without throw-away plastic bags. Reusable fabric bags are attractive and economical options. See how attractive and economical at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Reusable bags WILL catch on!

Martin Sloan, writing in The Birmingham News, has just written a great piece “Reusable Bags could catch on”. One look at this picture and you can see why they have to catch on! He quotes folks who have appreciated the need to use reusable fabric bags instead of choking our world with plastic bags. More power to you, Martin. Folks like you will save our planet, despite the myopia that most of the world still demonstrates. See how attractive and economical reusable fabric bags can be at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Pretty up a tote bag and win yourself a prize!

Martin Sloane of The Birmingham News got a tremendous response to his article on switching to reusable bags. So great, that he’s decided to kick off a contest. To enter you have to decorate a reusable bag (no paper or plastic, folks) and send clear picture of it to Martin at the Birmingham News or email it to him at site4savings@hotmail.com The winner gets $ 100, the second prize is $ 50 and third prize is $ 25. Kids are encouraged to enter, and the winning photos get featured at Martin’s website http://www.martinsloane.com/ Great going Martin! Keep this up and you’re going to do a lot of good to our planet! Reusable fabric bags are a practical and simple solution to a problem of mounting proportions. They are attractive and affordable as you can see at http://www.badlani.com/bags This is Chloe, a talented graphic designer who ordered bags from us with one of her beautiful designs. Makes us proud to be associated with folks like her.