Can we do without plastic bags?

The New Straits Times in Malaysia opened a debate on the issue. Some interesting comments came up: “We can’t completely do without them. Only a really naive person would think so. It would be great if we could reduce 80 to 90 per cent of irresponsible usage”. — is the sensible suggestion from reader Gurmit Singh. He’s bang on. Ireland put a tax on them and usage dropped 90% in one year. “THERE’S no way we can live without plastic bags today” says Cindy Chin, “why” she asks “would I swap for something else, especially when plastic bags are given free everywhere?” That’s the problem. They’re perceived to be free. They’re not, of course. The retailer buys the bag at a low price, but the real cost is what happens after the bag is used and thrown away. Since we use one or two plastic bags at a time, we can’t see the staggering numbers that are thrown away and are becoming a blight on our world. They don’t biodegrade for hundreds of years so they pile up and pile up and choke either pant life or animal life. Thousands and thousands of innocent creatures are dying painful, premature deaths every day. But like most people, Cindy doesn’t see the consequences and she thinks they’re free. Reusable bags are the only answer. Even when they are made from water resistant plastic coated polyester. Because the number of times they are reused makes them far more environment friendly than the use-once-and-throw-away variety. At http://www.badlani.com/bags we offer a vast range of bags made from cotton, jute, polyester, and polypropylene. Reuse is what we say. Expecting people to perceive the whole problem and switch voluntarily appears to be naïve. A tax, like Ireland imposed, is the sensible answer.

Lessons from Harvard and Google

Harvard Business School has a wonderful resource for all businesses, large and small. Access is absolutely free. I strongly recommend reading it regularly. Lots of useful stuff there. Here's the link http://hbswk.hbs.edu/index.jhtml Read one article and it will make you think and grope in your mind for answers. But the next article may just answer those questions. Professor Gerald Zaltman has written a book called “How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market”. That, as we all agree, is the holy grail. That’s where purchase decisions are made. The trick, says Professor Zaltman, is to look for relevant, basic emotions that have been overlooked by other brands in the category. Hmmm, you might think, as I did, what would be the relevant emotions my business could look for, stuff that my competition is overlooking? An article by Professor Mukti Khaire answers our question. She believes growth comes from by developing intangible social resources such as legitimacy, status, and reputation. Kind of answers the question, doesn’t it? Now what can you do that would confer these attributes to your business? I’ve always felt that Google answered this question best. Do stuff that benefits everybody; all your stakeholders which includes the community you do business in, be perceived as really good guys and keep it simple! Plastic bags are doing untold harm to our planet and your stakeholders are fast becoming more aware of this. Making available reusable fabric bags in any manner – whether you give them away as premiums, distribute them at trade shows and events or even sell them at cost –will get you the positive image attributes Prof Khaire talks about. Can you afford to do this? See how economical and attractive reusable cloth bags can be at http://www.badlani.com/bags Can a simple bag achieve this kind of impact? Ask yourself what you think of businesses that do a lot of common good even while promoting themselves. That will answer your question. So suppose you could afford just 1000 cotton bags, what visibility would that get you? Do the math. They get reused maybe 400 times each, and every time someone carries it around, it gets seen by a couple of hundred people. That’s 200 x 400 = 80,000 eyeballs. Per bag! Now multiply this by 1000. Great branding value, wouldn't you agree? Talk to us. We’ll work with you to plan an affordable and effective plan for your business.

Go ahead and tax plastic bags, say 55% of Japanese shoppers

An article in today’s Yomiuri Shimbun said 55% of Japanese shoppers want plastic bags to be taxed. They voted to support a government plan to reduce garbage by having supermarkets and other retailers charge customers for plastic bags, according to the results of a Cabinet Office survey. Only 22 percent disagreed with the plan, the office said. Talk about a mature society. Contrast this with California, where a majority appear to be against a tax, and India, where people flout the laws against plastic bags every day. One million plastic bags are being thrown away every minute of the day and night. This is endangering the lives of animals and marine creatures all over the world and putting an unbearable burden on our planet. No wonder the Japanese succeed at everything they do. The world has a lot to learn from them. Plastic bags offer a utility for just a few minutes and the cost of that convenience is way too high. Reusable cloth bags are the answer. See how economical and attractive they are at http://www.badlani.com/bags

Plastic bags are killing whales

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.

Girls just wanna have fun

Scotland is fortunate to have media that have taken cognizance of the harm that plastic bags do to the environment. The Edinburgh Evening News has taken up this issue and launched a 6 week campaign through the city's major supermarkets to encourage more shoppers to buy stronger re-usable bags costing a few pence each. The campaign is being spearheaded by the environmental group Waste and Resource Action Programme, with Edinburgh chosen as one of two UK cities to pilot the scheme. If it is successful and enough shoppers are persuaded to switch it may be rolled out to other cities. A 10p tax on plastic bags is under discussion at the moment. Such a bag tax would raise an estimated £450,000 each year. Across the Irish Sea the "plastax" as it has become known has seen the demand for plastic bags fall by a staggering 90 per cent. The problem is gigantic. In the UK alone supermarkets give away 17.5 billion of them a year, with the average shopper taking home around seven each week. Six out of ten shoppers in Edinburgh arrive at supermarkets and shops expecting to be given free bags to ferry the shopping home. Most inevitably end up in the dustbin and ultimately find their way to a landfill site where this buried rubbish will take more than 100 years to decompose. Until the late 70’s no one gave away plastic bags - and everyone either managed with a paper bag or carried a tote. The world chugged along just fine and folks shopped as enthusiastically as they do today. The doomsday types claim folks will stop shopping if they aren’t given free plastic bags. Utter nonsense. Check with the folks in Ireland. Have they all closed up shop and gone home? Are you kidding? Plastic bags are just a habit. If they aren’t available, people will not even think of them. That babe who needs a new outfit for next Saturday is going to buy that outfit. You think she goes shopping because she gets a free shopping bag? Especially when she can carry her shopping home in a lovely reusable cloth bag; the type you’ll see at www.badlani.com/bags/

Pleasing our customers is what we live for

This morning my daughter Kaajal got a mail from a customer in Akron, Ohio, which said this “I am absolutely delighted! Please let us put a testimonial on your web site. You have been wonderful to work with, and the product is terrific. I'm still amazed that in this new world of ours we have managed to find our product in India and buy it with the same ease as driving to the nearest town. Thanks so much, Ellen” You made our day, Ellen. Thank you! This is what we live for – to please our customers. We’re proud that we make very good bags, but we’re even more proud that someone in Akron, Ohio finds it so easy to work with us. Please send us a picture of yourself with your bag, Ellen. Meanwhile, here’s a picture of Kaajal in her office which I took as she was inspecting a bag before it went to a customer. You’ll find a large variety of bags shown at our website http://www.badlani.com/bags Talk to us. We’ll do everything we can to make you feel the same way Ellen does.

American city councils ponder plastic waste problem

City councils everywhere today have to address the question of what to do with discarded plastic bags. Collecting them and transporting them to landfills is costing money. Lots of it. So much, in fact, that California calculated the cost at 17 cents per bag. So, they proposed a tax of 17 cents per plastic bag. There is much opposition because citizens feel the cost of shopping will go up. Perhaps councils could look at other examples of how some communities across the world have addressed this problem. Ireland imposed a tax and cut plastic bag usage by 90%. Clearly, popular or not, it works. Taiwan has cut plastic bag usage 80%. But some Australian communities have succeeded followed the voluntary route. The city of Coles Bay led the way with local bakery owner Ben Kearney pushing for a reusable bag that every citizen bought and used. Coles Bay just celebrated their 1st plastic free anniversary and they believe they’ve saved their community from using more than 350000 plastic bags. Ben won the Tasmanian of the Year award for his efforts. Fitzroy Falls is another Australian community that has proudly declared itself plastic bag free. They got local students to do designs and ordered bags that citizens bought through local retailers. Then, 13 city councils got together under the Northern Inland Regional Waste Group and invested in buying 86,000 reusable fabric bags to be given away free to all their citizens. Everyone is proudly using them and they’ve also become virtually plastic bag free. Granted, these are small communities where it is easier to get consensus. Most American city council managers will be surprised to hear that some US communities have also succeeded in ridding themselves of plastic bags. Galena, Alaska, a village of 850 also banned plastic bags. With a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the council handed out 2,000 free canvas bags and phased out plastics in the town's three stores. To date, nearly 40 other Alaskan villages have followed suit, said Bill Stokes of Palmer, Alaska, who helped formulate many of the bans with the state's Department of Environmental Conservation. Most Americans have the impression that reusable bags are expensive. They aren’t. Particularly when imported in bulk. At http://www.badlani.com/bags you will see more than a dozen alternatives that can be got at less than a dollar each.

Amitabh Bachan speaks out against paper bags

Amitabh Bachan, one of India’s most popular movie stars, hosts KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati), and it is watched by an audience of many millions. Yesterday evening I was thrilled to hear him start the show by asking folks to think about what happens to all the plastic bags they throw away. As a people we are notoriously unconcerned about civic issues (look how clean everyone’s homes are on the inside and see how they carelessly throw garbage right outside their own doors). But what the Big B says is considered gospel and I hope people paid attention to what he was saying. Thank you, Amitabh. We need lots and lots of influential people like you speaking up on the subject. The sad thing is that everyone appears to think that paper bags are the only alternative. They’re not and because they are used just once, they are also wasteful. Reusable cloth bags are a much better answer. See a vast array at http://www.badlani.com/bags

Jharkhand bans plastic bags. But only at some places.

The Indian state of Jharkhand announced a ban on the use of plastic bags within a two km radius of religious and tourist place. "Plastic bags are harming animals and are a problem at religious places. They have been banned under the Environment Law 1986," says the notification. Isn't that happening everywhere, not just at religious and tourist places? Why not ban them everywhere? But it’s a good move anyway. I admire our country for the number of good and progressive laws we have on our statute books. Now, if we could only learn to implement them. And I wish we could get rid of this preoccupation with religion. Specially the rituals. Clean water is a very scarce resource and getting scarcer by the day. Banning plastic bags is a good idea. But a lot of other things also need to be banned. Particularly at religious places; particularly near water bodies. The amount of junk that religious rituals generate is frightening. Water bodies are inundated with people immersing idols, foodstuff, flowers, incense, firewood, ashes, and so many other things. We’re such a crazy people. Well meaning, pious, but unthinking and blind.

The government of India needs to reconsider this insane rule.

Back in the 70s there used to be a joke based on some songs by Bob Dylan and other such topical balladeers. The punch line was the moment the US government discovered that marijuana caused cancer they’d legalize it. Governments and all large systems, including corporate systems, behave in completely irrational ways much of the time. The recent experience in Mumbai established beyond any doubt that plastic bags are huge burden for urban systems to cope with. California’s city government calculated that it costs them 17 cents to collect and dispose off a plastic bag, so they’ve mooted a tax of 17 cents on plastic bags. This in a place where people don’t just throw stuff all over the place. In India, we have no rules on how we organize our garbage and we believe that freedom means the right to litter. But instead of taxing these ghastly things, their manufacturers have been specially exempted from taxes if they use “recycled” plastic. The government of India needs to reconsider this insane rule. Ask yourself where recycled plastic comes from. What it’s come in contact with in the past; and you will realize that using a recycled plastic bag means putting your skin in contact with an unknown set of noxious poisons, and if you carry food in them, eating the residues of an extremely risky set of things. Makes no sense. We live in a country that grows cotton and jute in abundance. Get yourself a nice stylish reusable cotton or jute bag for heavens sake. It’s your family’s health you’re talking about. See http://www.badlani.com/bags to see what attractive choices you have. Say no to poisonous plastic. In fact say no to all plastic bags.

Biodegradable plastic bags for real

These words have been bandied about so much that recyclable, ecofriendly, biodegradable and other such reassuring terms have lost meaning. I earlier wrote a blog about one of the worst instances of this obfuscation. http://badlani.com/blog/weblog.php?id=30 . The Indian Express, a hugely influential newspaper with a massive circulation published a story that actually said ““NO NEED to kick this plastic habit” They were talking about a technique developed at ATIRA to make plastic bags photodegradable. Which means it would break down with exposure to light and become a fine powder that would mix with the soil and invisibly poison all of us. I wrote to the Indian Express and called the scientist. No reply. When scientists and major newspapers make such irresponsible statements pronouncing a noxious and dangerous substance safe just because it can’t be seen, you see what I mean. But today I read about what appears to be a genuine biodegradable plastic bag being made in Vasai by a guy called Perses Bilimoria, who’s making plastics from starch and cottonseeds, according to an article in Cybernoon. I’m going to write to Perses today and try and see if we can find a way to work together to reduce the amount of plastic we pile up on our heads every day like lemmings. Meanwhile, our fabric bags continue to be one way to avoid poisoning the earth. See them at http://www.badlani.com/bags

Maharashtra bans plastic bags

Great! They learned something from the recent flooding. It’s creditable to see a government in our country move this quickly. But the lobbying has started and follows the usual route. Short sighted reps of the plastics industry have started making noises that more than 1,00,000 workers will lose their jobs. Utter tripe of course, but our governments have a habit of rolling back many of their decisions when these kinds of pressures are brought to bear on them. Our overly moralistic politicians had no problem with (so they claim) 1,00,000 bar girls losing their jobs when they closed down dance bars so I hope they will hold firm on the plastic bags issue. But the ban on bar girls has more potential for creating an income for the enforcement system (like prohibition in Gujarat) so that ban will stay so that generous bribes are collected when folks are caught breaking the law. But the ban on plastic bags doesn’t have that much potential for fun. So, even if they don’t roll the law back, I’m afraid the ban is difficult to enforce in a country where law enforcement hardly exists. We already have laws banning the use and manufacture of thin gauge plastic bags, but they continue to be made and used with impunity and continue to choke drainage systems and be eaten by unsuspecting animals and marine life. One look at the chaos on our roads and the government’s inability to enforce laws becomes clearly visible. We export cloth bags to environmentally concerned customers all over the world from http://www.badlani.com/bags but hardly every get any customers in India. Sad, isn’t it?

Good corporate citizen image at such a low cost?

Sponsorship from Landmark Narromine, a real estate company is helping the Narromine Shire Council rid their community of plastic bags. Narromine Shire Council is encouraging all residents to take advantage of the current 'Plastic Bag Swap Op' where calico bags are given free to residents when they bring in 20 plastic bags to the Narromine Council Chambers, Tomingley BP or the Trangie Library. "There have been more than 16,000 bags bought in since the swap program started, which is a great result," Miss Cartwright said. You know what that means in terms of sponsorship money? 16000 divided by 20 is 800 cotton bags. That would (or ought to) have cost them maybe $ 2 each. Look at the image payoff. The sponsor looks like a very responsible corporate citizen and deservedly earns goodwill and trust. Earning the gratitude of any entire city and all the attendant publicity that comes with it for under $ 2000? Ever heard of such a thing? Those 800 bags will be taken out for shopping trips maybe 300 times each. That’s 2,40,000 eyeballs for such a small cost. Much better bang for your corporate buck than sponsoring something gimmicky, wouldn’t you say? Write to us today and we’ll work out a cost-effective program for your company. See the attractive and economical bags at http://www.badlani.com/bags

How sacred are Indian cows?

A story in today’s Indian Express talks about how 95 per cent of urban India’s stray cattle are suffering from various ailments due to hazardous materials inside their abdomen. 90 per cent of that was plastic bags. This, while a website about Hinduism says “The cow has almost become a symbol of Hinduism…in India, the cow is believed to be a symbol of the earth - because it gives so much yet asks nothing in return. Because of its great economic importance, it makes good sense to protect the cow” In theory, of course. We’re a country of very high minded and noble intentions. Our actions completely contradict all that. We sell reusable cloth bags every day of the week to customers all over the world from http://www.badlani.com/bags , but we have no customers in India. Tragic, isn’t it?

Turning junk into beauty while helping people

Used plastic bags can do immense harm if allowed to choke landfill or left free to be eaten by innocent animals and marine life. But they can be used for good if used as a raw material. That’s what we decided to do. I spoke to my designer friends Prakash Vani and Himadri Ghosh and that is what we’ve been trying to do. This little picture shows you the junk we started with, the very basic looms we worked with and some of the beautiful bags and textures we could create. Feels really good to be able to take something awful and turn it into something so delightful. Read the whole story at http://www.badlani.com/recycle I realize that this is a modest achievement, but it is meaningful to us and I imagine even more so to the folks who can benefit from it. But I also see that it has immense potential for good. I'd love your input on how we can take this forward from here. Please take a moment to share your thoughts with me. Ideally, I'd like to identify people and agencies who can assist in the process of bringing to market the products that emerge from this exercise. All thoughts will be more than welcome. And if there is anything you can bring to the table, we'd love to work with you. Whoever you are, wherever you are. Write to me at rajiv at badlani.com

Cradle to cradle design

http://www.mbdc.com has a totally inspiring concept on their website. This is what it says. "MBDC is articulating and putting into practice a new design paradigm; what Time calls "a unified philosophy that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world." Instead of designing cradle-to-grave products, dumped in landfills at the end of their 'life,' MBDC transforms industry by creating products for cradle-to-cradle cycles, whose materials are perpetually circulated in closed loops. Maintaining materials in closed loops maximizes material value without damaging ecosystems”. We’re doing our modest bit on this front too. Scroll down to see the weblog titled “Turning junk into beauty while helping people” where we’ve attempted to precisely this. What we’re doing, of course, is going to the grave and turning it into a cradle. The whole story is at http://www.badlani.com/recycle

Are men dumber, or just less secure?

Clean Up Australia says men are the weaker sex when it comes to saying "no" to plastic bags. A national Newspoll conducted by the environmental organisation shows 50 per cent of women are likely to refuse a plastic bag, but just one-in-three men say 'no'. A third of men surveyed say they prefer to use plastic bags over reusable bags, compared to just one-in-five women. Everyone’s been telling me this for years. That we’re the dumber sex. But could it be that we are just more insecure? No woman’s feminine identity is threatened by being seen carrying a cloth bag for her groceries. Are men concerned that they’d look like wimps carrying a cloth bag? Most cloth shopping bags are designed to look like the kind of totes women carry. A corporate client (a male) who regularly orders giveaway bags for the trade shows he attends on behalf of his company gave me some insight into this. Most totes, he mentioned, look too feminine, and male visitors to trade shows feel awkward carrying them. We worked with him to design a jute + cotton tote with longer handles that men could sling over their shoulders without getting this feeling. He wrote in after the show telling us that the design was a big hit, and preferred by everyone (males particularly, but women included) to the bags other exhibitors were handing out. It was particularly gratifying, he added, that most folks catching flights out after the show, had his bags slung over their shoulders at the airport also. At Norquest, we work hard to find the most appropriate solution to our clients’ needs and enjoy putting in the effort to customize solutions for their needs. See the vast selection we have on show at http://badlani.com/bags and if you don’t see something that appeals, brief us and we’ll work towards creating a bag for your specific needs. Sensitivity to such issues can go a long way in encouraging everyone to reduce plastic bag usage. Younger people would prefer backpacks. We have a great line of very economical backpacks too. Who said all shopping bags need to be cut from the same cloth?

The polluter needs to pay

The Australians are leading the world in a voluntary switch away from plastic bags, but the results are clearly not enough. According to figures from this year's Clean Up Australia campaign, retail sectors other than supermarkets have only reduced their plastic bag use by between 10 and 15 per cent over the past couple of years, and the number of plastic bags in the litter stream is rising rather than falling. Figures showed that while major supermarkets had achieved a near 27 per cent reduction in the number of plastic bags issued in the past year, other stores had been slow to follow. IBISWorld general manager Jason Baker said the problem was that in many cases the significant costs involved outweighed the benefits for the companies, despite what might be best for the environment as a whole. "Until companies, and therefore consumers, are forced to pay the 'full cost' of producing polluting energy or other products - including paying for the cleaning up and avoidance of air and water pollution, or recycling and disposal services - they won't be encouraged to develop 'clean' alternatives, such as wind power or effluent-free farms," Mr Baker said. In contrast consumption of plastic bags in Ireland dropped 90% within a year of imposing a 12 cent tax on plastic bags. The problem is very serious and taxation appears to be the most productive way to go.

India: Great laws, poor enforcement

Our laws are some of the most progressive in the world, but enforcement is zilch. We have strict laws against production, storage, use, sale and distribution of polythene bags. Himachal Pradesh, a state that earns much of its revenues because of its scenic beauty, was the first to implement it. In theory.In theory you can be fined upto a lakh of Rupees (US$ 2000) or be sent to jail for upto 7 years. In practice, no one has ever paid that fine leave alone spend time in the cooler. Most Indian citizens are completely unaware of the law and you see plastic bags flying around everywhere. The Indian cow, considered sacred and an object of worship, is one of the worst victims. 95 per cent of urban India’s stray cattle are suffering from various ailments due to hazardous materials inside their abdomen. 90 per cent are plastic bags. We ship reusable cotton bags every day of the week to the whole world from our website http://www.badlani.com/bags but we have no buyers in India.

Kids have bags of great ideas on how to send plastic packing

A class of 11- and 12-year-olds in Australia is leading a push to make the Royal National Park towns free of plastic bags, the first time a school has instigated such a ban. The Bundeena Public School year 6 campaign - "No plastic packing for Port Hacking" - started with an environmental education project. The snorkelling students were disgusted at the number of plastic bags they found floating in the waterway. The 28 students followed this with a litter survey, letterboxed homes and yesterday called a public meeting to build support for a possible phase-out of bags by September 1. The students are challenging other schools in the Sutherland Shire to follow suit. Nationally, about eight towns and suburbs have ditched plastic bags altogether and many others are planning to do so. Charlotte Bawden, 12, said: "It's the whale season right now and some whales have been found with plastic bags in their stomachs. It's hurting the animals. The turtles think the plastic bags are jellyfish and they eat them." Bundeena and nearby Maianbar are surrounded by national park, Port Hacking and the Pacific Ocean. Hayden McLaggan, 11, said the students were keen whale watchers - they saw five humpbacks yesterday morning - and wanted to protect the mammals from man-made threats such as plastic bags. Planet Ark project manager Doug McLean said: "This is the first town where the children have led the way." The National Parks and Wildlife Service has just banned plastic bags and brought in $200 fines at a rock-fishing site at Wattamolla in the national park. Bundeena and Maianbar, with a dozen shops and a combined population of 3000, are similar in size to the Tasmanian tourist town of Coles Bay, which was the first town to ban plastic bags. Some Bundeena cafes have already stopped supplying plastic bags. The owner of The Fish Exchange, Bruni Ullrich, sells calico bags for $1.10. "People love it after it sinks in," she said. Warren Mason, a partner in the largest retailer, IGA Bundeena, said it was a "wonderful idea in theory" but would require a re-education program for consumers to change old habits. "There are people who buy a two-litre bottle of milk, which has a handle, and they still want it put in a plastic bag," he said. It’s a sad thing that most smaller Australian stores don’t know how affordable reusable cloth bags can be. I hope some of them check out our prices at http://www.badlani.com/bags

Talk to kids. They have the magic!

That’s how I got into the business of reusable cloth bags. My daughter Kaajal came home from school one day and banished them from our home. Little girls know they have that magic. They can make wonders happen. They can banish things. And it works. This not-so-little girl-now helps me build and maintain this website and market reusable bags all over the world. She still has the passion and the conviction! To effectively rid your community of this ghastly substance, engage the kids in your community. If they decide that plastic is harmful, they will have a bigger influence on their parents than any amount of sloganeering and advertising can do. Would it be difficult to convince kids of this? No. Kids are more open-minded than grown ups are. Treat them with respect, give them the facts, and watch them achieve what governments and activists have not been able to achieve. Read the stories on this weblog. There are enough facts and anecdotes to build a lesson plan from. If this isn’t enough, write to me and I will either find you what’s missing or do whatever you need to deliver the message. Actually, encourage the kids in your class to read the blog themselves to extract what they consider relevant to their lives. Then, encourage them to start their own weblog where they tell stories of how their efforts are working out in your community. Tell your local media about the blog the kids are writing. I’m sure they will find it interesting. You’ll be amazed at what this can achieve.

Aberdeen considers reusable bags

Reusable cotton shopping bags are to be distributed free to shoppers on a trial basis to encourage people to reduce the number of plastic bags they use, under the the 'Fantastic it's not plastic!' initiative. Cotton shopping bags will be handed out at the shopping precinct on North Deeside Road during the promotion and local children at Culter school are also being encouraged to participate in the initiative. Amy Gray, Aberdeen City Council's Business Waste Minimisation Officer says, "Aberdeen City Council is encouraging residents to become more waste aware. Refusing plastic bags at checkouts is a simple step anyone can take to reduce the amount of waste they produce. Aberdeen City Council is also lobbying for the introduction of a tax on plastic bags in line with other forms of packaging." The UK now produces and uses 20 times more plastic than it did 50 years ago. Around 10 billion plastic bags are handed out by supermarkets and other retailers in the UK every year. Scots alone take more than 18.5 million plastic bags home from shopping trips each week, according to research by the UK's largest home improvement retailer B&Q. Every year Scotland uses approximately 1 billion plastic bags, this equates to 200 plastic bags for every man, woman and child in Scotland. If national averages are applied to Aberdeen then local residents are sending some 1000 tonnes of plastic bags to landfill each year. The average household is estimated to have 40 plastic bags stuffed in cupboards or drawers. Ireland introduced a levy on plastic bags in March 2002 under the Waste Management Act 1996, reducing usage by 90%. Plastic bags are a major cause of unsightly litter and they also harm wildlife. The amount of petroleum used to make one plastic bag would drive a car about 115 metres. Plastic bags that end up at sea are easily swallowed by marine life that mistake them for food. An estimated 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine life die every year after swallowing plastic bags. In many council areas, plastic bags are the single main contaminant of kerbside recycling. In a report by Audit Scotland it is envisaged that waste is estimated to grow by 7% per annum, compared to a 3% predicted within the National Waste Strategy. The UK's appetite for free plastic bags shows no sign of diminishing despite many voluntary schemes such as bags for life, boxes or recycling of plastic bags. That’s the bad news. The good news is that awareness of the problem is increasing by leaps and bounds and is opening up the market for ecologically responsible products. An aggressive campaign positioning reusable bag users as being trendier and more glamorous and plastic bags users as being Neanderthals can achieve faster change. There’s a huge branding opportunity inherent in this. Patagonia and Body Shop are two very successful brands that have positioned themselves as being the smarter choice for their ecological concerns are a case in point. If you’d like to give your brand that kind of panache, choose from the attractive and economical options at http://www.badlani.com/bags Your logo on one of our reusable bags will position you as a responsible, forward thinking brand.

Plastic bag junk causes Mumbai city to lose billions of dollars

Yesterday Mumbai city was inundated by floods. The megacity, India’s business hub was paralyzed. The cost: Billions of dollars and a miserable day for residents who couldn’t make it to hospitals, schools and places of work. Most flights were either cancelled or diverted to Ahmedabad, and trains were cancelled or ran hours late. Mumbai has an intense monsoon. You can expect incessant downpours at least 4 times every year. The downpours aren’t new. They’ve been coming to India’s west coast for hundreds of years. But the intensity of flooding is new and getting worse every year. One of the major culprits is the increasing number of plastic bags that are choking drainage systems. India actually has laws banning the use of such plastic bags, but like most laws in India, they exist only on the books. No one knows about them, no one follows them, and no one appears to care. Ironically, India is a major exporter of reusable cloth bags. We ship reusable cloth bags http://www.badlani.com/bags every day of the week to other countries as they take effective steps to reduce plastic bag usage, but we don’t have any customers in India. This weblog is being acknowledged by readers around the world as a good source of information on the problems caused by plastic bags and the solutions communities have found, but again, hardly anyone in India reads it. Help! All concerned, thinking people, please help get our people and governments more sensitive to this problem. Talk to me, we'll try and figure out ways to do this together.

There’s hope for Ahmedabad yet!

This morning a nice young lady came by to discuss what she’d read on my blogs, to talk about how she and the organisation she works with – The Center for Environment Education – could get Ahmedabad conscious of the harm plastic bags are doing. I was thrilled. I’d given up on my own home town (shame on me!) and she reminded me that there’s no need to. That thinking and concerned folks do exist right here. I blame myself for not having thought of the people and resources that Ahmedabad has. The CEE in itself represents an immediate and potent force for change. Thank you, Vinutha, for stopping by. I enjoyed discussing the issue with her and I’m sure we can put some of the fun stuff we discussed into action soon. She’s asked me to put together an article on how ecological action can become relevant to businesses here and I’m going to have a blog up on that in a couple of days. Watch, as they say, this space!

The rise and fall of a brand

What do you need to create a successful brand? A huge advertising budget? It helps, of course, to have oodles of money to back up your story, but I don’t think it’s the key ingredient at all. If you’ve got enough passion, advertising budgets don’t matter. If you’re in love with your consumer and your product, a kind of magic happens that allows you to achieve big things with small bucks. If this sounds like wishful thinking, here’s my own story. In 1980 I launched a brand of jeans called Flying Machine literally on a shoestring budget. Its initial launch was done by kids who fell in love with the jeans and sold them to one another. They created such a rush on them that we couldn’t keep up with the demand! Then, to enter the Mumbai market, I released one ad in the Times of India (yes, just one) and used one major billboard (which I negotiated at a bargain rate over a drink with the owner one evening because it was the monsoon season). O&M made such a phenomenal ad for me that it was talked about for years after that. The credit goes to Ranjan Kapur and Elsie Nanji. It had a sassy headline “Who needs phoren?”

Bags or decks, natural products are best

The San Francisco Chronicle had a story today comparing wooden decks with composite decks made from recycled plastic waste. Bottom line, they say, go with wood, because composites also have a limited life span and are eventually not biodegradable. So finally they will contribute to the environmental burden our planet has to bear. But the fact that companies like Trex, TimberTech, Louisiana Pacific, Epoch and CorrectDeck are finding uses for plastic waste is wonderful. We’re also doing what we can as you can see at http://www.badlani.com/recycle If you, like many thinking people nowadays, are concerned about the environmental impact of your actions, please stick to using cotton bags. We offer polypropylene and polyester options also, as they are reusable, not used-once-and-thrown-away like plastic bags, but our cotton and jute bags are best, because they will go, as nature intended, from dust-to-dust. See the options at http://www.badlani.com/bags

The world is going crazy, but there’s hope…

Doug Gordan wrote about how he bought some gum and the store clerk put his tiny purchase into a paper bag and then put the paper bag into a plastic bag. As he left the store, he took the pack out of the bag and threw the bag out in a corner trash can, giving the bag a total out-of-store lifespan of about two minutes. Considering, he says, that so many New Yorkers are rarely without messenger bags, backpacks, or Louis Vuitton knock-offs, most have little use for plastic bags for the few items they might purchase during our daily routines. If you want to rock the world of just about any convenience store employee, tell them that you don't need a bag to hold your purchase. Doug often pre-emptively does this. In return, he says, he’s greeted with looks that most people reserve for the insane and/or Tom Cruise. Its become a habit, over-packaging everything. It’s a habit that is costing the world dearly. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade and will stick around and blight our world for centuries to come. And as they fly around they will be eaten by innocent animals and marine life who will die painful deaths because their digestive systems get choked. Reusable bags are the answer. Preferably cotton or jute bags. Completely biodegradable and far more stylish and amazingly affordable (see how affordable at http://www.badlani.com/bags ) What’s fascinating about Doug’s article is the number of comments its generated. I’m going to write a blog about those comments soon. The really good news is that they all support a pastic bag tax.

This isn’t my opinion, look at the results

Helen Logan reports in the Evening Gazette that Ireland used 1.2 billion plastic bags before 2002, when a 15 cent tax was imposed on their usage. Did it hurt business? Was the Irish government overthrown by distraught shoppers? Not really. What actually happened was that plastic bag usage fell by more than a billion bags within 5 months, and earned £2.25m for the Dublin exchequer to be spent on environmental protection projects. “Many of us pick up and fill loads of plastic carriers when doing the weekly supermarket shop, without a second thought” says Helen, “imposing such a tax seems an easy way of cutting down on this type of consumption. People can either bring their own bags or at least be encouraged to re-use the plastic ones if they have had to pay for them”. Common sense isn’t it? The harm that these innocuous looking little plastic bags do cannot easily be visualized by everyone. If a 15 cent tax can bring the issue home, I’m all for it!

Plastax is a brilliant idea says Shane from Ireland

Shane Doyle from Ireland wrote in about my blog on Ireland’s plastic bags. Here’s what he said: "I'm from Ireland myself and the whole plastic bag tax has been a roaring success. You have to ask for a bag now if you want one, the days of automatically being handed a bag are long gone. And it really works, people can be seen going to the shops with their own "green bags", as they are called, or even just re-using the same plastic bag again and again. You rarely see a plastic bag being blown down the street in the wind anymore! I must say, it was a brilliant idea!" Thanks, Shane, for sharing that. I agree that it is a very bright idea. If you’re sick of seeing plastic bags destroy your environment, ask your elected representative to read this blog.

Promotions? Bags make the most sense

I just read an article by Cindy Carrera where she explains the basics of how organizations can use imprinted promotional articles to their advantage. She categorizes their uses into Advertising Specialties, Business Gifts, Premiums, and Recognition Awards. “The trick to a good promotion is to attach your company details to something useful. Now, there is "private useful" like the promotional toothbrush you use in the privacy of your own bathroom, and there is "public useful" that you use out there where everyone sees you inadvertently parading the promotion. This is where promotional bags come in. Few of us can get people to wear sandwich boards for us without paying them, but easily collocated promotional bags act in much the same way” she says. “Imagine” she adds “the happy recipient of your promotional gift arriving at a jazz concert in the park toting your promotional bag. There it sits on the blanket, sophisticated, serene and discreetly advertising your sophisticated and serene company. What a pleasure.” Indeed. We’ve found that our bags get reused more than 300 times. Choose a relevant bag, she suggests. She’s right. There’s a huge variety to choose from, and most are more affordable than you might think. See the variety at http://www.badlani.com/bags I'm sure we have something suited for your next promotion. And if we don't, we'll design a special solution for you.

What possible 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 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

Got any ideas?

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. We're doing our best to make it easier for the world to switch to reusable cotton bags (http://www.blogger.com/ ) but people will continue to use plastic bags. 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/

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. Sad, when such easy solutions are available and affordable.See some at www.badlani.com/bags/

Plastic bags make up 50% of beach litter

More litter was left on Britain's beaches in 2003 than in any other year, according to a new survey by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) says a BBC report. Plastic bags made up 50% of the litter found with 5,831 collected. The MCS want a big reduction in the amount of plastic packaging used on items and would like the government to bring in tax on plastic bags. The Australians are achieving a lot even without a tax like the Irish have done. 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 www.badlani.com/bags/

Talk about dumb!

Plastic bags don’t have a very long history. What looked like a miracle of convenience from its conception in 1957 until the late 1990s, has now turned into a monster that threatens life on earth as we know it. Here’s the chronological story of this tragedy unfolding. Who could have imagined this? 1957: The first baggies and sandwich bags on a roll are introduced. 1958: Poly dry cleaning bags compete with traditional brown paper. 1966: Plastic bag use in bread packaging takes over 25 to 30 percent of the market. 1966: Plastic produce bags on a roll are introduced in grocery stores. 1969: The New York City Sanitation Department's "New York City Experiment" demonstrates that plastic refuse bag curbside pickup is cleaner, safer and quieter than metal trash can pick-up, beginning a shift to plastic can liners among consumers. 1974/75:Retailing giants such as Sears, J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, Jordan Marsh, Allied, Federated and Hills make the switch to plastic merchandise bags. 1973: The first commercial system for manufacturing plastic grocery bags becomes operational 1977: The plastic grocery bag is introduced to the supermarket industry as an alternative to paper sacks. 1982: Kroger and Safeway start to replace traditional craft sacks with polyethylene "t-shirt" bags. 1990: The first blue bag recycling program begins with curbside collection.1990: Consumer plastic bag recycling begins through a supermarket collection-site network. 1992: Nearly half of U.S. supermarkets have recycling available for plastic bags. This, as we all know now, is really just whitewash. No one is effectively recycling plastic even today. 1996: Four of five grocery bags used are plastic. 2002: Ireland wakes up to what is happening and puts a tax of 15c (9p) on them. 2003: Consumption in Ireland is down 90%. You'd imagine the world would learn, right? 2004: Nope. We're still dumping plastic bags at the rate of a million bags a minute! Talk about dumb!

Planet Earth's new nemesis?

British shoppers get though eight billion a year, but elsewhere the humble plastic bag has become a menace, with one country even banning them outright. Could the UK follow suit? Supermarket shopping in Ireland is much the same as anywhere in Europe, or indeed the rest of the world. But one element British shoppers would find distinctly foreign is the need to pay for plastic bags at the checkout. Since the beginning of March, supermarkets have been forced to charge shoppers a 15c (9p) tax on each new plastic bag. The idea was introduced as an attempt to curb the litter problem created by so many bags. And anecdotally, at least, it seems to be working. Within a couple of months, shoppers have switched to re-using carrier bags. Customers now routinely turn up "pre-armed" with a clutch of polythene and one of the biggest chains, Superquinn, says the number of bags it distributes has dropped by 97.5%. Now that sounds like something to learn from, right? But no one has. Not one country has followed through on introducing a similar tax. Not one. Britain talks about it every so often (This article appeared on the BBC site on 8th May, 2002!). Scotland discusses it too. India and Bangladesh claim to have banned plastic bags (but hello, I live here and see plastic litter everywhere I look). And the biggest consumer of plastic bags in the world – the USA – continues to pretend that there is no problem at all. Stupid. When there are elegant and affordable options. See http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Some towns in Alaska lead the US in banning plastic bags

Outside the Western Alaska village of Emmonak, white plastic shopping bags used to start appearing 15 miles from town. They blew out of the dump and rolled across the tundra like tumbleweeds. In Galena, they snagged in the trees and drifted into the Yukon River. Outside Kotlik, on the Yukon Delta, bags were found tangled around salmon and seals. No more. All three villages banned the bags. "It's working out good here," said Peter Captain Sr., chief of the tribal council in Galena, where the city banned stores from using plastic bags in 1998. "You used to find plastic bags all over the place, up in the trees. ... But you don't see that now." At least 30 communities statewide have banned plastic bags. They have joined a growing list of places around the world that decided the bags' nuisance outweighs their convenience. Ireland and Taiwan started taxing bags to curtail their use. South Africa banned them completely, as did Bangladesh after devastating floods were attributed to stray plastic bags blocking drains. Great going! Reusable bags are so much more intelligent and affordable. www.badlani.com/bags/

Trash costs Californians hundreds of millions in taxes every year

But strong lobbying from the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc has prevented Californians from being able to introduce a 2 cent tax on plastic bags. Much like the cigarette industry, these guys also obfuscate facts into making their products sound completely virtuous (its not the plastic bags at fault, it’s the way people use them is one of their favorite sayings). Yeesh! Get real. How about this: "Caltrans (the California Department of Transportation) spends $300 million a year on cleaning streets and installing catch basins along highways, while the city of Los Angeles will spend $400 million over the next decade on cleaning up the L.A. River," Murray said. "Trash has become a very expensive matter for our government agencies." They wanted just a 2 cent tax and these guys are helping kill that. A 15 cent tax in Ireland reduced plastic bag consumption by 90% in one year. The savings would be huge. That’s why I love the business I’m in. Every reusable cotton bags we sell www.badlani.com/bags/ helps avoid the use of as many as 500 plastic bags. U.S. consumers use 14 billion plastic bags annually, Murray said, which works out to 425 bags for every American.

I might save the world, but my own backyard is quickly going to hell!

I recently spent a weekend at a tiny beach called Kelva where my friends Rumy and Shernaz Shroff have a place on the beach. Delightful hosts. I love being invited. To get there you drive upto a place called Manor on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway and then turn off for Palghar. The road takes you through some ghats (beautiful but you get dizzy with the winding road if you’re not driving) and then takes you onwards to a little village called Kelva which is bang on what used to be a beautiful beach. It’s now littered with plastic bags. A little village, hardly known to anyone, miles from any large population center, but it caters to many local tourists. They come there on Sundays and holidays, busloads of them, and spend a few happy hours on that lovely beach. All of them bring along their own booze and food – in thousands of plastic bags. By Sunday evening the place is a disaster. Read on to see what some friends and I are doing about it.

What a delight to find a like minded soul

Its nice to know that there are like minded folks out there. I just read a weblog from a guy called Josh Dorfman who runs an online lifestyle company called Vivavi.com. He has concerns about the same things that bother me and I’m going to write to him hoping we can work together in some way soon. Be nice to actually syndicate with a whole bunch of like minded business folk. Read his blog. Its at http://vivavi.com/Vivavi_Daily.php

Know why Russians bring their own shopping bags?

Because stores in Russia don't give away free plastic shopping bags, that's why. That's why the Irish government imposed a tax on plastic shopping bags and reduced usage 90%. The folks who run our convoluted world can’t accept that there are simple solutions to seemingly complex problems. With one fell swoop we can stop our earth from being choked at the rate of one million plastic bags being thrown away every minute! What do we have to do? Do we need a heavy think tank to figure this one out? No. Just tax plastic bags, and viola! – we’ll have a nicer world

The propensity for plastic continues

They're cheap, easy and everywhere: As many as a trillion plastic bags are used worldwide a year. But would Americans kick their plastic addiction if they had to pay for them? Alaskans call them "tundra ghosts" and "landfill snowbirds." In China, they're "white pollution." South Africans have sarcastically dubbed them their "national flower." Snagged in treetops in Ireland, they become "witches' knickers." The bags are not just a blight, but are wasteful, kill wildlife, pollute oceans and may be insinuating toxins into the food chain. Purchases are bagged almost reflexively. "When I buy a birthday card, it goes into a plastic bag – I buy one item and it goes into a plastic bag," said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, an environmental group in Sacramento. A Japanese study found that beads of polyethylene plastic can concentrate toxins at up to 1 million times their strength in surrounding sea water. A British study found that ocean invertebrates such as barnacles and jellyfish can eat plastic fragments. That leads Murray to worry that "plastic particles are becoming vehicles for transferring toxins up the food chain." Plastic grocery bags were banned in Galena, Alaska, a village of 850. "Bags blew out of the landfill and into the Yukon River, and there was even some evidence the salmon were eating them," said Cindy Pilot, director of the environmental department of the Louden Tribal Council, Galena's governing body. With a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the council handed out 2,000 free canvas bags and phased out plastics in the town's three stores. To date, nearly 40 other Alaskan villages have followed suit, said Bill Stokes of Palmer, Alaska, who helped formulate many of the bans with the state's Department of Environmental Conservation. Taxation works, as does demonstrating an elegant alternative like an attractive cotton bag. See what we have at www.badlani.com/bags/ - see how attractive and affordable they are too. What's your call on this? Tax 'em or not?

Americans are noticing the harm plastic bags are doing

Time was when we all worried about it, the Irish, the Scots, the South Africans, the Australians, us Indians… but the Americans didn’t. Everyone else’s worrying and all the clean-up action lost meaning because it’s the Americans who consume most of the stuff on earth, and use – and throw away the most plastic bags too. So, seeing this article in Newsday gave me great joy. That’s one thing I love about the Americans. Once they pick up a cause, they run with it with an energy and intensity that no one else on earth can match. If the Americans cotton on to this cause, we’re home free! “We are drowning in plastic bags around here. They obviously reproduce exponentially in the closet at night. Take a look at a typical day in our household. Monday: Pick up a few things at a local farm stand - scallions, lettuce, green beans. That's three plastic bags, but since I have a tote bag I don't need a fourth bag for the other three. "Vanity Fair" arrives in the mail in a plastic casing. My husband comes back from the post office with a ton of mail in a plastic bag. Buy chicken at the supermarket, think about asking for paper but contemplate the chicken juices leaking all over the car, and, whoops, said chicken is in a plastic bag before I get my change. And the morning paper arrived in a plastic bag. Total for the day: seven. Saved: one. And goes the week. Plasticbagitis is an epidemic sweeping the world, and it's happening right here in my home. This is not a good thing. Spend a few minutes on line and you discover that this plastic-bag epidemic is not only totally terrible for the environment, but completely out of control. Thousands of turtles, birds and other marine animals are killed every year because they swallow the darn things, mistaking them for squid and jellyfish.... Sad, when solutions exist. Economical and attractive solutions: See the reusable bags at www.badlani.com/bags/ What do you think? Am I being practical here? Or do you believe that there's another solution? Read the rest of the article here

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.