No More Baggin' in China!

[LeadHership]

Awhile back, I blogged about my "green" bags for grocery shopping. Now, I'm even more compelled to use them!  Tonight, in an NBC Nightly News report, I learned that China is outlawing the use of ultra-thin plastic bags. Why?  Get a load of this:
>3,000,000,000 - the number of plastic bags China uses everyday!
>200 - the number of years ONE plastic bag takes to degrade!
>37,000,000 - the number of crude oil barrels required EVERY year to make plastic bags for China!
These days, I spend half my life at plastic-bag places (Walmart, Publix, CVS, ToysrUs)! Hearing these stats really motivates me to find other ways to tote my stuff!

[Jo Ann]

really? wow, this is a great eye-opener for me... i have tons of plastic grocery bags at home. i better get those green bags now.

[greenresolutions]

http://www.reusablebags.com/ has a counter that estimates in real-time how many plastic bags have been used this year. it jumps 100,000 or so in a split second.

And the processes to produce and recycle paper bags can also damage the environment. If you're interested in the effect of paper and plastic bags and the amount of energy it takes to make them, I have some links from this post:
http://greenresolutions.blogspot.com/2008/04/paper-vs-plastic.html

In addition to bans on the bags, there are lots of places that charge for plastic bags, including Ireland and Italy, and it has the effect of reducing plastic bag usage.

We switched to reusable cloth bags a little over a year ago, and I actually find them MUCH more convenient now that I'm in the habit of remembering them. They hold at least twice as much as the disposable bags. They never break on the way out to the car. And if you get the bags with the long straps, they are so much easier to carry b/c you can put them over your shoulder.

And if you love animals, this will help you remember those reusable bags. (Sorry, there are some links so I can't post it directly.):
http://greenresolutions.blogspot.com/search/label/wildlife

[Audrey]

This is one of the changes we made. We have cloth bags in both cars. After we unload them we put them right back in the trunk.

We refuse bags daily. Today, I went out for lunch to a take out chinese place. I said "no bag ". They just looked at me. Wow...just think if just 50% of their customers refused just this one bag in their day.

[Nancy]

The Los Angeles Times just had an article on this very subject.  Here is the link:  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus27-2008jul27,1,4866912.column

Quite an eye opener for some of us.

Nancy

[Audrey]

I know there are folks really angry over the 25 cent per bag charge. We can get cloth bags for a dollar each. Gosh, invest 5 dollars and you've got 5 reusable bags. Or spend 1 dollar each time you go to the store for the 4 bags

[Nancy]

Do what my husband and I did...we went to the fabric store bought about two yards of fabric on sale, cost us under $10.  I then sewed my own bags, took about 1 hours and I have twenty bags!  I use them for everything, nothing fancy or decorate them any way you want. 

Nancy

[Audrey]

Nancy,

That is so cool. I so wish I could sew. I can't. I can't even sew a button on

Let's see if I can be persausive (big grin). If you hold a contest on your blog and give away one of your bags, I promise to enter I so love my cloth bags.

[Nancy]

Great Idea, Audrey,  I was trying to think of something to give away on that blog.  I would have to sew some new ones though, the ones I have are showing their wear.  Maybe next month as this month I just don't have time.

Thanks

Nancy