Here it is - the jute supermarket bag

Sure is a great looking bag, isn’t it? We call it the Jute #B06. Attractive, economical and capable of saving the world from the waste of as many as 1000 plastic bags, this bag is a hero! Packing and shipping costs are being worked out even as I write this, and we hope to have this lovely bag up on our website very soon.

Roads from plastic waste. Great idea!

What a great idea! R Vasudevan, Head of the Department of Chemistry, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai has pioneered a way to use a mix of shredded plastic waste in making roads. t’s mixed in with the “metal” used to make the road and assists in binding it better, making it capable of withstanding heavy rains, reducing the amount to bitumen required. The development team believes it also offers better road grip than rubberized roads. Sounds seriously win-win to me. Much better than the blind eye all the authorities in India have been turning to the huge plastic waste problem we have here. Here’s a picture of these folks standing on their road. The lady’s the head of the college. I admire people who try to do something about the problems they see. I’ve been working with my friends, Prakash Vani and Himadri Ghosh to see if we can also do our bit, and we’ve succeeded in making some viable looking products from plastic waste using handlooms and devices that do not require any more energy input and can be made at home by even the poorest of the poor. I’ll have a story and a webpage about that effort up very shortly.

How your city can become plastic bag free

Fitzroy Falls sets a fine example of how this can easily be done. Some cities in Australia did this by having their local government invest in cloth bags and hand them out free to every citizen. Some cities that thrive on tourism had citizens take a pledge to each buy and use cloth bags. But Fitzroy Falls has followed what appears to be simplest path. They utilized the local retail network and citizens bought cloth bags from the retailers they do business with. The local council imported cloth bags at a lower cost because they could place a larger order than any individual could. Then they sold them to local retailers who are allowed to mark them up so that they can make some money on them and order more. Deputy Mayor Nick Campbell-Jones said the declaration of Fitzroy Falls as a plastic bag-free town was an example for the rest of the shire to follow. "This is the first locally-branded, re-useable shopping bag in the area and it goes some way towards the creation of a sustainable community," he said. Local students were encouraged to come up with a design for the re-useable bags which would express an environmentally responsible message and also promote the Fitzroy Falls region. "Early on we realised that the best way to proceed with the campaign was by consulting with the local community. We spoke to local businesses to establish what their issues of concern were as well as getting the kids involved in creating the design," Ms Katz said. "The launch today shows that even small communities can make a stand against plastic bags and offer viable alternatives. "Diane Garwood stressed the environmental damage plastic bags do to the environment. "Plastic bags have an enormous impact on the marine environment and are responsible for the deaths of 100,000 birds, seals or wild turtles every year," she said. Would you like your community to be plastic bag free? Write today to Rajiv@badlani.com and I’ll be happy to work out a specific plan for your community. You can select from the vast variety we have at www.badlani.com/bags and we’ll be happy to print your community’s message on them for you.

Plastics are a gender bender

The culprit is an ingredient in plastic goods called phthalates says a story in The Guardian. They seep into your food from plastic packaging and get into your bloodstream. Result: ‘Women with higher levels of four different phthalates were more likely to have baby boys with a range of conditions, from smaller penises and undescended testicles to a shorter perineum, the distance between the genitals and the anus,’ said the report. "Every aspect of male identity is altered when you see this in male animals," the article quoted Fred vom Saal, professor of reproductive biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, as saying. Levels of aggression, parenting behaviour and even learning speeds were affected, he said. The differences indicate a feminisation of the boys similar to that seen in animals exposed to the chemicals. Ouch! Switching to buying unpackaged food and carrying it home in our natural cotton bags seems like a smart thing to do, doesn’t it? Reusable cotton bags are attractive and affordable, as you can see at http://www.badlani.com/bags

Scotland will tax plastic bags

I just read an article by Jeremy Watson in the Scotland News that the Scots will soon be charging a 10 cent tax on disposable plastic bags. Scotland uses about a billion bags a year totaling up to 6,500 tons of waste. Most are buried in landfill sites, where they can take hundreds of years to degrade, but many litter urban areas, the countryside and the sea, where they can become a major hazard for wildlife. The stomachs of whales and seabirds washed up on Scottish shores have been found to be filled with plastic bag fragments, which may have contributed to their deaths. The sums raised will be collected from shops by local council officers and the profits spent on environmental projects. In Ireland, where a similar bill has reduced plastic bag usage by 95% since being introduced in 2002, the levy has already raised £23m, says Jeremy. Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Pringle, who introduced the bill, says that the Irish levy had been "a huge success", adding: "As well as reducing the number of plastic bags being thrown away, it has really increased awareness of recycling in general” Councils in Scotland are backing a levy as it would save them millions of pounds in landfill charges, as well as providing cash for new environmental programmes. Predictably, the British Plastics Federation, is carping about it, but Mike Pringle has the answer “Free plastic bags only became common in the 1970s. Before that our forebears managed very well without them." Reusable cloth bags are an attractive and affordable alternative, as can be seen at http://www.badlani.com/bags The guys who oppose the taxation bill should read some of the stories on this weblog, including the one which tells you how plastic chemicals leaching into your food from packaging and doing a gender bender on newborn babies.

No wonder the Japanese succeed at everything

Clearly they are a more evolved society than most others. Elsewhere, governments are facing opposition from retailers when they propose a tax on plastic bags, but not in Japan. Here, the Japan Chain Stores Association have themselves called for a law to enable stores to charge customers for plastic shopping bags. The industry body said retailers have incurred growing costs for recycling plastic trays and other recyclable containers. It said if those costs continue to increase, some retailers might become unable to shoulder the burden and Japan's "recycling system might collapse." What an admirable perspective. Smart guys, the Japanese. Look at how clean Japan is. Bring in a tax on plastic bags and usage does drop. It fell 95% in Ireland. Getting used to carrying reusable cloth bags is obviously something humans can adapt to fairly quickly. For those who forget to carry it or want the luxury of not needing to carry it, a small tax makes sense. Before plastic bags started getting distributed free after the 70s, we managed didn’t we? Reusable cloth bags are attractive and affordable as you can see at http://www.badlani.com/bags

Witches Knickers

Barbara Wallraff tells us in the The Atlantic Monthly that this is what the Irish call fugitive plastic bags that fly around and snag everywhere. Completely fitting. Lee Buenaventura, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, felt nearly the same way, but she suggested giving the term a "tweak" to Americanize it: witches' britches. Other interesting American terms: Urban Tumbleweed, Shoppers' Kites; Sheilah Zimpel, of Raleigh, North Carolina, wrote, "Here in the South we call that white trash." A whole new lexicon is emerging to describe this blight. I’ll soon add some non-American terms that are being used. What words would you use to describe things that are killing animals and marine life, poisoning your food, compromising the masculinity of unborn boys or being just plain ugly? All contributions welcome. The reusable bags we offer at http://www.badlani.com/bags are attractive, affordable and a whole lot healthier for our planet and for our lives.

Preity’s no bimbette

Contradicting the clichéd assumption that babes lack brains, Bollywood superstar Priety Zinta is clearly a thinking woman. ‘‘I want to urge people not to litter and turn our city into a big dump before we all die of diseases and toxic poisoning,’’ she fumes. The first thing on Zinta’s agenda is to ask the authorities to ban plastic bags in Maharashtra. ‘‘We have to stop using polythene bags. We must adopt brown bags. They have banned plastic in Shimla and it’s already looking good,’’ she reasons.Preity, we already have a law against plastic bags but it isn’t implemented. And brown bags, by which I assume you mean paper bags, aren’t a great option. Paper bags are made by cutting down trees that take more than 20 years to grow. When they are cut to spread literature and news and knowledge, maybe it’s worth it, but to make a paper bag that gets used just once? Terribly wasteful, in my opinion. Cloth bags are reusable and that’s the real answer. The sign of a mature society is when people give up a little convenience for the overall good of their environment. Carrying one’s own shopping bags is a small price to pay to pay for a cleaner city. And the price is truly small as you can see at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ Mumbaikars ought to be specially sensitive to this. Discarded plastic bags contributed substantially to creating the choking of drains that led to the recent floods the city experienced.

The world may be passing us by while we dither

Plastic is a wonderful invention. But plastic bags are a menace. It is the most idiotic way to use a material that has a life of 3000 years. Use it for stuff where its long life is an advantage, such as making boats that last longer, houses and roofs for the poor that don't decompose every time it rains, roads that last longer, not for making bags that will be used once and thrown away. The world has caught on and is taking action, but in India, even though we have a law banning throw-away plastic bags, you see them all over the place. Shops abandon plastic bags Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - Oct 10, 2004 The State Government, City of Port Phillip and South Melbourne Market contributed $12,000 to help Elwood retailers bin plastic bags in favour of reusable paper ... Project aims to bin plastic bags Belfast Telegraph (subscription), United Kingdom - Oct 16, 2004 ... Plastic bags will still be available but anyone who uses them will be expected to make a small donation to charity when paying for their goods at the counter. ... Liberals would ban free plastic bags Ninemsn, Australia - Oct 13, 2004 ACT opposition environment spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said a Liberal government would ban single-use non-biodegradable plastic bags by 2006. ... Rwanda shuts businesses after banning plastic bags Reuters AlertNet, UK - Oct 4, 2004 KIGALI, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Rwandan authorities are shutting down shops and police are stopping people on the street for using plastic bags, which were recently ... Rwanda's war on plastic bags BBC News, UK - Oct 4, 2004 Thousands of Rwandans have taken the day off work to pick up plastic bags as part of a government attempt to clean up the environment. ... Rwanda clamps down on plastic bags Independent Online, South Africa - Oct 5, 2004 Kigali - Rwandan authorities are shutting down supermarkets and police are accosting people for using plastic bags, which were banned in August. ... Environment Society to launch campaigns Times of Oman, Oman - 10 hours ago ... A campaign, which aims at educating the public about the harms of plastic bags and how one can help save his/her surroundings by simply reusing the plastic bags ... Stores to be fined if offering free plastic bags 東森新聞報, Taiwan - Sep 27, 2004 ... Protection Administration launched another random check on stores to make sure that owners kept to the regulation of using only plastic bags thicker than 0.06 ... Meanwhile, in India, superpower, world’s largest democracy, a country that takes on the biggies where nuclear power and satellite technology is concerned; a country that has the best and brightest minds in the world, a ban on plastic bags exists but only on paper. Successive governments continue to make laws they can’t enforce. These are the truths of our great and confusing nation. Really sad. At www.badlani.com/bags/ we continue to sell cloth bags to people all over the world. Sadly we don't have any customers in India.

Welcome to a new friend

I’m writing this about a pretty young lady named Ryfka who is just joining the ranks of the green nuisances, us folks who go around evangelizing about the evil of plastic bags. She lives in Kent, which is down the road from Seattle in Washington State. As her blog has yet to begin to roll, here’s what she’s going to write later today at http://20six.co.uk/seattlegirl1 : “Puget Sound” In Trouble Residents of Seattle and Canada have discarded millions of gallons of unrefined sewage and some of the most awful toxic chemicals imaginable into the beautiful Puget Sound, damaging what was once one of the United State’s richest ecosystems Negligent residents have over fished, poisoning much-loved Orcas, ruined shoreline habitation and due to the waste of discarded plastic, pop-cans (ever so popular with the teenagers), and glass bottles the devastation resumes. Soon we will live in a garbage heap…unless, people in Washington stepped up and did they daily due by using nature-friendly and cost effective products that are reusable such as cloth bags. Instead of killing trees for paper carriers or using harmful plastic bags that most of us don’t recycle, cloth seems like a great starting point and a stepping stone to a cleaner, unpolluted world. Since the beginning of March, supermarkets, stores, and small shops in Great Britain have been forced to charge shoppers 9 pence or an approximate 15 cents tax on each plastic bag that a consumer would use for his/her purchase. The initiative on the bag-tax was introduced as an attempt to control the litter and pollution problem created by so many people throwing away their plastic shopping bags, and thus far it appears to be effective. Results? Shoppers are now switching back to the good-ol’ cloth carriers just to save a few hard earned bucks at the checkout counter. If countries such as the UK are profiting on this simple-effectual idea, then why isn’t the United States jumping on it? Since we are, according to the entire world, the largest waste producers, such a straightforward and uncomplicated tax would solve many of our waste issues. I live in Washington, one of the most beautiful states of America, I can tell you personally that I have seen a gross amount of plastic being distributed at just grocery stores. On an average 200 plastic bags are given out at a single food-store everyday in Seattle…this alone should start to alarm people. I think its time we step up as the largest and most powerful country in the world and fix the big problems first. This one, its one of the biggest problems we have. It will kill us as surely as any terrorist can. You can bet on it. As a citizen of this beautiful northwest, I want to tell the folks who run Washington sate that I’d like to see a tax on plastic bags. Its not going to be popular but its going to save our earth! Well said, Ryfka! Not only is she pretty, this girl thinks! I wish there were a million more like her. That’s what our mission is folks, keep it clean! Use the products we have on www.badlani.com/bags/ .That’s why we make ‘em.

90% of Hong Kong people support plastic bag tax

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

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

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

What harm can one little plastic bag do?

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

The plastic bag issue is fortunately getting some attention

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

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

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

Please leave me a world worth living in.

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

No Bags, thanks!

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

Who invented the shopping bag?

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

Plastic bags don't just fade away

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

Brand USA surprises and disappoints

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