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.