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It's great to see the U.S. finally getting serious about the plastic bag issue - from IKEA implementing a charge for plastic bags to San Francisco's move to ban plastic grocery bags at large chain retailers. Read below for more on these developing stories.
These measures represent positive steps to reducing plastic bag consumption. Inspired? Take action now and BYOB - bring your own bag. Click here to see our full line of reusable shopping bags.
New York Times, 4.1.07
By a 10-1 Board of Supervisors’ vote, San Francisco became the first major American city to ban the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags by supermarkets, drug stores and other large retailers.
Yet another alternative is to sell consumers reusable bags.
“The paper versus plastics question takes us off the issue, which is consumption,” says Vincent Cobb, who offers reusable bags and containers on the Internet. “Getting into the habit of bringing your own shopping bag,” he says, “can slash this problem across the board.”
New York Times
Christian Science Monitor, 3.29.07
In a trailblazing environmental move that recognizes one of the stubborn shortfalls of traditional recycling, San Francisco city leaders have approved a ban on nonbiodegradable plastic bags at supermarkets and large pharmacy checkout counters.
By voting March 27 to ban traditional plastic bags, made from petroleum, the city hopes to spur retailers to provide an alternative type of plastic bag – one made from starches.
Christian Science Monitor
CNN.com, 3.28.07
SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to become the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets to help promote recycling.
Under the legislation, beginning in six months large supermarkets and drugstores will not be allowed to offer plastic bags made from petroleum products.
"Many [foreign] cities and nations have already implemented very similar legislation," said Ross Mirkarimi, the city legislator who championed the new law. "It's astounding that San Francisco would be the first U.S. city to follow suit."
"I am hopeful that other U.S. cities will also adopt similar legislation," he said. "Why wait for the federal government to enact legislation that gets to the core of this problem when local governments can just step up to the plate?"
The city's Department of the Environment said San Francisco uses 181 million plastic grocery bags annually. Plans dating back a decade to encourage recycling of the bags have largely failed, with shoppers returning just one percent of bags, said department spokesman Mark Westland.
Mirkarimi said the ban would save 450,000 gallons of oil a year and remove the need to send 1,400 tons of debris now sent annually to landfills. The new rules would, however, allow recyclable plastic bags, which are not widely used today.
A spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who must approve or veto the legislation, called it sensible. "Chances are good that he is going to sign it," said Nathan Ballard.
San Francisco to ban plastic grocery bags
New York Times, 3.27.07
SAN FRANCISCO, March 27 — Paper or paper?
That may soon be the only question heard at grocery counters across San Francisco, as the city's Board of Supervisors cast a decisive blow in the paper versus plastic debate on Tuesday, banning non-biodegradable plastic bags in its large grocery stores and pharmacies.
The ordinance, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, will remove standard plastic bags from supermarkets and pharmacies with sales of more than $2 million a year, said its author, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who said his city was simply following a worldwide trend toward greener grocers.
"Scores of nations have already gone through this," said Mr. Mirkarimi, citing similar laws in places including South Africa and Taiwan. "It’s really astounding the United States would be so late in the game to come online to do something that should be common sense...
San Francisco Board Votes to Ban Some Plastic Bags
MSNBC.com, 2.21.07
Sweden's IKEA will charge U.S. customers five cents for disposable plastic shopping bags in what the international furniture giant said on Wednesday was a first step to ending their use altogether.
IKEA said the decision to stop giving away free bags to customers aimed to reduce the estimated 100 billion bags thrown away by all U.S. consumers each year.
IKEA is believed to be first retailer in the United States to undertake such a program, according to National Retail Federation spokesman Scott Krugman.
MSNBC.com
Californians Against Waste, 9.30.06
California Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 2449 (sponsored by Levine) on September 30, 2006 to implement a statewide plastic bag recycling program.
From the Governor’s Signing Message:
“While this bill may not go as far as some local environmental groups and cities may have hoped, this program will make progress to reduce plastics in our environment. This measure requires every retail establishment that provides its customers plastic bags to have an in store plastic bag recycling program, a public awareness program promoting bag recycling, post recycling requirements, record keeping and penalties.”
Californians Against Waste
NPR, 3.14.07
San Francisco may be on the verge of becoming the first city in the country to ban plastic shopping bags because they're bad for the environment.Some experts say the bags are one of the biggest sources of pollution in the city. By some estimates, San Francisco markets generate $200 million of them every year.
County Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi wants to banish the bags from the city once and for all.He said, "What it takes in petroleum use to make these polyethylene plastic bags, and the cost to discard these bags, begs the larger question: what are we going to do about the hazards and the environmental adverse effects of these plastic bags?"
Mirkarimi's proposal calls on grocers to use recyclable paper, plastic that can be composted or re-usable bags.
National Public Radio
Ventura County Star, 1.14.07
Recycling plastic bags is about to become easier in California as retailers begin complying with a new California law, Assembly Bill 2449, that requires certain stores to accept used plastic bags for recycling. Most grocery stores and other large retailers will have to provide drop-off options for plastic bag recycling.
At less than 1 percent of the total waste stream, plastic bags might seem like a trivial portion to deserve such attention Its effect on business and the environment, is the real reason bags were targeted by the state legislators: statewide, the most common kind of violation at solid waste facilities is litter blowing off piles, and the most common type of litter at landfills and waste processing centers is plastic bags.
Ventura County Star
WIS-TV Columbia, 1.24.06
(National-NBC) Jan. 24, 2006 - From choosing plastic over paper in the checkout line to wrapping up those leftovers, environmentalists say these simple choices could be killing our beaches. They're so serious about the pollution problem they're pushing for a tax on plastics...
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4406451&nav=0RaP
FoxNews.com, 10.3.05
LOS ANGELES — If proposals by some California (search) lawmakers and environmentalists are ultimately approved, shoppers in the Golden State may soon find it easier to answer the "Paper or Plastic?" question at the register.
That's because proposed regulations would hit plastic bag consumers where it hurts ... in the wallet...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171218,00.html
Tasley Eastern Shore News - Tasley,VA,USA, 3.31.06
To the editor:
At a recent meeting of the Jamesville Homemakers, the mouthpiece of the Jamesville Regulars, we lamented that there is not a bounty on plastic bags, since our roadsides, fields and woods are festooned with them...
http://www.delmarvanow.com/easternshore/stories/20060331/2268775.
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 1.1.06
"If at first you do not succeed, try, try again."
Adhering to this old adage, the Earth Lady shall again try to inspire her readers to become bag ladies and gentlemen and take their own reusable bags to the grocery store. And when asked if one would prefer paper or plastic, the Earth Lady hopes that you will say "neither," and with a confident air, provide the sacker with a collection of canvas and mesh bags for his or her convenience...
http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=210286&pub=1&div=Lifes
American Chronicle, 9.20.05
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 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.
You’ll be surprised to hear that some American 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.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?article
Waste News - Akron,OH,USA, 9.6.05
Rhode Island has become the first state to offer statewide collection and recycling of plastic bags.
The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp. adopted the program, called ReStore, Sept. 2 by partnering with area grocery stores. The Rhode Island Food Dealers Association, whose members include large national chain stores and small neighborhood markets, has endorsed the effort. One of its members is paying to back-haul the plastic bags from the markets and shipping them to the recycling facility.
"Recycling plastic bags is an environmental stewardship that we wholeheartedly support," said Anita San Antonio, president and CEO of the grocers association.
The RIRRC estimates that the state´s residents use 192 million shopping bags per year, and about four-fifths of the bags are plastic.
http://www.wastenews.com/headlines2.html?id=1126024351
Turn to 10.com - Providence,RI,USA, 8.31.05
Rhode Islanders use a lot of plastic shopping bags -- an estimated 192 million a year.
But officials say the plastic bags clog the Central Landfill in Johnston and also blow around the surrounding area.
The state and grocery stores have teamed up on a project they call "ReStore."
Beginning Friday, there will be blue boxes in front of dozens of grocery stores to collect used plastic bags.
The program will sell the bags to a Virginia company that recycles plastic and wood to make decking.
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4918293/detail.html
Newszap Arizona - AZ,USA, 8.8.05
Steven Kann, a McDowell Mountain Ranch Boy Scout, was looking for an Eagle Scout project when he thought about recycling.
He had heard about plastic bags contaminating other good recycling material in the mauve bins supplied by the city of Scottsdale, so he went to the solid waste management department to pitch an idea.
As a result, he and 48 volunteersnnScouts, members of the community and city workersnn were out early one Friday morning, pick-up day, putting stickers on 1,100 mauve bins in the Montecito area of McDowell Mountain Ranch. "No plastic bags" read the aqua and white stickers.
"Plastic bags are not only the number one contaminant in Scottsdale, they are the number one contaminant for every major city in Maricopa County,"
http://www.newszap.com/articles/2005/08/08/az/north_valley/scotts
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4.16.05
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation initiated the statewide cleanup program 27 years ago. The program has since been merged with others to become the largest state-administered volunteer effort of its kind in the nation.
Last year, 182,000 people picked up 233,000 bags of litter and debris during the one special cleanup day. Over the span of a year, millions of tax dollars are also spent trying to keep roads, ramps, interchanges and bridges looking more presentable.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05107/489003.stm
Pentagram - Fort McNair, DC, 4.15.05
It's one of the great issues of our time -- paper or plastic? -- and the Defense Commissary Agency has come down solidly on the side of paper.
The recent spike in oil prices has made plastic grocery bags more expensive than paper, according to agency officials, so commissaries throughout the continental U.S. have begun a campaign to encourage customers to use paper…
http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/10_15/local_news/34454-1
Navy Compass - San Diego, CA, 4.15.05
…The principle aim is to control rising grocery bag costs by reducing double bagging in commissaries worldwide, and to encourage a switch from plastic to paper in U.S. commissaries, but the environmental approach is a great side benefit.
…Customers also suggest bringing bags back to the commissary to reuse, or buying canvas or mesh bags that can be used over and over again…
…“The use of canvas totes is another means of reducing costs,” said Nancy Little, a Langley Air Force Base commissary shopper…
…Customers may bring paper or plastic bags back to the commissary to use for their own grocery order, but commissaries are not able to recycle bags for anyone other than the original user due to health concerns…
http://www.navycompass.com/news/newsview.asp?c=154298
Daily Aztec - San Diego, CA, 3.22.05
…The San Francisco Environmental Commission recently agreed on a proposal to charge 17 cents for each plastic or paper bag taken home from any major grocery store in San Francisco, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The proposal includes any store with more than $2 million in yearly sales. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote on the issue this spring.
San Francisco reports the 17-cent fee was calculated by dividing the estimated $8.5 million yearly bag clean-up costs by the number of bags used by major grocers, according to www.sfgov.org. Revenues from the proposed fee would be spent on street cleaning, landfill costs and both the disposal and recycling of bags.
Not surprisingly, the United States is behind the times when it comes to bags. Denmark and Ireland both have similar fees on bags, while South Africa has banned thin plastic bags. The San Francisco proposal is the first of its kind in our nation…
http://www.thedailyaztec.com/media/paper741/news/2005/03/22/Opini
EastOregonian.info, 3.13.05
A recent trip to the grocery story got me pondering two questions: Why doesn’t everybody use canvas shopping bags, and why do people buy bottled water?
…Besides Bangladesh, Taiwan, South Africa, Ireland, Australia and Italy have enacted policies to prohibit or discourage the use of plastic shopping bags. Canvas shopping bags are fantastic.
They are strong and much easier to carry than paper or plastic bags.
They never break. Many grocery stores will deduct 5 cents from your total each time you use your own bag…
http://www.eastoregonian.info/Main.asp?SectionID=34&SubSectionID=
Progressive Grocer, 3.1.05
SPOKANE, Wash. -- At a time when San Francisco and some other cities are considering imposing fees on grocery bags to cut down on pollution from bag waste, Yoke's Fresh Markets here is set to become the first grocery chain in the nation to offer 100 percent degradable plastic bags that the company says are just as strong as nondegradable bags and can still be reused.
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
Washington Times, 2.24.05
Plastic grocery bags: environmental curse or cure?
Unlike paper products that come from trees, a renewable resource, plastic items are a petroleum-derived material and almost never are biodegradable. That would seem to give the environmental advantage to paper bags -- except that harmful chemicals and pollutants also are involved in the manufacture of paper…
… a number of countries and locales have chosen, or are considering, taxing both kinds of disposable bags and using the money for research and education…
…Leading the charge on American soil, San Francisco city officials last fall tackled a proposal that would impose a 17-cent tax on each of the 50 million paper and plastic grocery sacks used there each year…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=200502
East Bay Newspapers, 2.21.05
Paper or plastic? EAST BAY - Rhode Islanders use a staggering 192 million plastic grocery bags every year, and these little bags are causing a huge litter problem across the state.
"Just look around and you'll notice the bags are everywhere," said Sherry Mulhearn, executive director of the Resource Recovery Corp. "They're hanging in trees, floating on the side of the road, in the bay ... everywhere. It's very tiresome to see litter crews walking around with pokers all day long poking at these bags. It's frustrating."
Frustrating to the tune of $1 million a year, which is what it's costing the agency to pick up those bags.
Compounding the matter is the fact that plastic bags aren't easily recyclable — they must be shipped out of state to be processed into new bags. "We [the state] are geared to accept paper for recycling, but not plastic," Ms. Mulhearn explained. "In fact, there are only three states where you can recycle the plastic bags into new bags: Ohio, Indiana and Florida, and it is expensive to ship them there." Consequently, she said, plastic bags are treated mainly as garbage in Rhode Island, and they are taking up precious space at the landfill.
Ms. Mulhearn also believes that even the grocery stores, which are supposed to offer recycling barrels for plastic bags, aren't actually recycling the bags. "We think many of the stores are simply using their current waste haulers to take their plastic recycling barrels to the landfill."
Helping combat the problem
To deal with the problem, the Resource Recovery Corp. is launching a quarter-million-dollar public relations campaign to persuade Rhode Islanders to help fight the plastic litter problem.
"Of course, in the best of all worlds, the best solution would be to have people use paper bags instead of plastic," Ms. Mulhearn said.
Our View: The odd thing about this $250,000 initiative is that it focuses on solely on switching from plastic to paper bags -- as we point out paper is no better than plastic . The initiative does nothing to address the core problem of over consumption and/or promote reusable shopping bags to address the problem.
http://www.eastbayri.com/story/282672088719119.php
Seattle Times, 2.18.05
Hey, you with the plastic bag flapping in the wind, and you with the candy wrapper dangling from your pocket:
Don't even think about dropping that stuff on the sidewalk or the street. Today's careless handling of paper or plastic is tomorrow's pollution. There is so much litter on city streets these days Seattleites can no longer pretend litter doesn't matter. It does. The League of Women Voters recently identified litter as one of the top concerns facing urban areas such as Seattle.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/200217684
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 2.13.05
…It has been nearly four years since I wrote about the scourge of plastic bags stuck in trees in Rochester. And there's a reason — I'm seeing far fewer of these cellulose eyesores in the last two or three years.
The Bags In Trees (BIT) epidemic may have peaked in 2001 and then begun to recede.
You will never notice bags in trees until an obsessive-compulsive person (me) points them out to you. Then you will see them everywhere...
…Maybe people are reusing them. I know we are at our house. The kids use them for sleepovers, lunches and for overflow school supplies. We empty the litter pan into them. We line small waste baskets with them. And we recycle the rest…
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20
The Tucson Citizen, 2.5.05
We've heard the question hundreds of times: Paper or plastic? But with tens of millions of bags leaving the stores every year, then being discarded, should we be asking: Your bag or mine?
At some Tucson groceries, customers can save money and help the environment by recycling plastic shopping bags.
Four supermarkets in Tucson offer nickel refunds for people reusing the bags…
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=020505
L.A. Daily News, 2.3.05
City officials eye fee to remove litter clogging streambeds
Paper or plastic? It might not matter soon. Supermarket shoppers could end up paying for selecting either bag if Los Angeles politicians follow a San Francisco proposal -- and the advice of some environmentalists -- to recoup the cost of cleaning up grocery-sack litter.
Los Angeles city leaders also want to get rid of grocery-bag blight. Hoping to avoid drastic measures, Councilman Ed Reyes wants manufacturers of plastics and officials in grocery chains to partner with him on bag cleanups and recycling programs.
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
Minneapolis Skyway - Minneapolis, MN, 2.1.05
...These stray plastic bags have no natural predators...So keep an eye out.
And the next time you find a noisome plastic bag brushing against your legs, or dangling from a low-hanging branch outside your work, do Downtown a favor and put the bag to rest in a garbage can somewhere.
http://www.skywaynews.net/articles/2004/12/27/news/news12.txt
Big Bear Grizzly, 2.1.05
Nobody wants to pay for something that has always been free. Nobody. Well, maybe a few people if it's for the right reasons. The environmental commission in San Francisco followed the lead of other countries by putting a measure before the board of supervisors Feb. 1 requesting an ordinance requiring local grocery chains to charge customers 17 cents per shopping bag-paper or plastic-to encourage people to either recycle bags or bring reusable canvas bags instead. What is starting in San Francisco may spread south, becoming a statewide mandate.
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 ... the family would save money within 11 trips to the store…
http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2005/02/02/news/bagcharge.
SunHerald.com - Biloxi,MS, 1.31.05
Americans used 1.3 billion pounds of plastic bags in 2001, according to Mastio & Co., a market research firm...In 1998, plastic grocery bags were banned in Galena, Alaska, a village of 850. 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.
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
San Francisco Chronicle, 1.28.05
…Problem: An estimated 50 million plastic bags per year are handed out at supermarkets in San Francisco. Plastic is polluting and costly to separate from waste headed for landfills.
Fee: A 17-cent surcharge would be levied on each plastic bag in grocery stores with more than $2 million in sales.
Where the money goes: Half to the city's Department of Environment and half to the grocery stores to be spent on environmental and recycling programs.
Who is next: If the fee works successfully, smaller markets, drugstores, dry cleaners and newspapers may be next…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive
Oneonta Daily Star, 1.27.05
…Most people probably would just consider the bag fee to be part of the price of business — or of going shopping, Houk said.
The fee would undoubtedly make people start to recycle and reuse their bags, said shopper Sheila Matson, from Prattsville.
"Bring your own canvas bag," Matson said… That’s what she does.
http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2005/01/27/bro1.html
USA Today, 1.24.05
San Francisco may become the first city in the nation to charge shoppers for grocery bags.
The city's Commission on the Environment 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. While the goal is reducing plastic bag pollution, paper was added so as not to discriminate.
"The whole point is to encourage the elimination of waste...
http://www.usatoday.com/money/2005-01-24-sf-grocery-bags_x.htm
San Jose Mercury News, 1.23.05
Choose paper or plastic at a San Francisco grocery, and it could cost you extra….Plastic bags jam recycling machinery, pollute waterways, end up in trees. ... Use of plastic bags in Ireland dropped 90 percent, they say...
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
The Searcy Daily Citizen, 1.20.05
Because they tumble all over town and country like little blue bushes tossed here and there by wayward winds, plastic bags bearing the Wal-Mart signature have become known as "Arkansas Tumbleweeds."
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
The Arizona Republic, 12.26.04
Plastic bags are the latest front in the battle against waste. Admired for their flexibility and durability but reviled for seeming to be everywhere, the bags accumulate in cupboards, in landfills and along roadsides.
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
Sacramento Bee, 12.26.04
SAN FRANCISCO - Consider the ubiquitous grocery bag: Light in weight yet capable of handling hefty items. Cheap to produce. Given away virtually for free. Shoppers practically consider it a birthright to be queried, "Paper or plastic?"
Yet production of the bags consumes natural resources. The bags frequently end up as litter, which has to be cleaned up. The plastic varieties are difficult for garbage haulers, recyclers and landfill operators to handle. And all of that costs money.
So next month, an obscure San Francisco commission is likely to approve a resolution asking city officials to impose a first-in-the-nation fee on each bag given to shoppers at major grocery stores…
…Commission staff estimated the city spends as much as $2.6 million a year to clear streets and other public property of bag litter.
http://sfenvironment.cust.digitalims.net/articles_pr/2004/article
USA Today, 11.21.04
City officials are considering charging grocery stores 17 cents each for grocery bags to discourage use of plastic sacks. The fee would also apply to paper bags to help reduce overall waste. Promoting a healthy environment "means we need to help change people's patterns, and that even means their shopping patterns," said incoming city Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who takes office in January. "This is a sensible user fee."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-11-21-grocery-sacks_x.ht
San Francisco Chronicle, 11.20.04
Heidi Melander, president of the Northern California Recycling Association...said "We've been trained to want bags...everywhere you go, they force them on you, and they think you're weird if you don't take a bag. We might not have control over the blister packaging around the electronic equipment we buy. But we have control over taking that bag."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/20/MN
Newport News Times - Newport,OR, 10.13.04
Sylvia High...received a ribbon in the arts and crafts recycle category at the state fair. High crochets castoff plastic bags into hats, tote bags and mats. She sells them at local markets and craft fairs.
http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2004/10/13/community/com
The Amarillo Globe-News, 3.20.04
As the area's commercial and residential development has increased, litter has become a common eyesore.
Although many share the blame, the Wal-Mart SuperCenter at Amarillo Boulevard and Tascosa Road has the dubious distinction of being the largest retailer on the block. And its trademark blue-and-yellow plastic bags are unmistakable.
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
The Gleaner, 3.10.04
Question: Is there any way the recycling trucks could take the plastic bags that many residents use for packaging their recycling articles? The reason I ask is that the practice of putting the plastic bags back in the blue recycling containers often results in a neighborhood full of plastic bags along the street or snared in a nearby bush or fence, especially on a windy day...
The reason? The company that handles recyling doesn't accept plastic bags.
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
CHINA Daily, 1.24.04
The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday ruled in a preliminary decision that plastic shopping bag makers in China, Malaysia and Thailand are dumping their products on the U.S. market and may require tariffs ranging from 0.12% and 122.88% to bring them to fair value.
In 2002, the U.S. imported about 100 billion plastic bags, of which roughly 40% reportedly came from China.
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2004-01/21/content_300640.ht
East Bay Business Times, 7.23.03
Disposable plastic bags, a staple for retailers the past two decades, may not be handed out so generously in California stores if a proposed bill is approved by state legislators. Proponents tout it as a way to help reduce trash on land and in the state's waterways, as well as the costs associated with collecting this ubiquitous form of refuse.
In a 1997 survey of volunteers participating in the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day, plastic debris was the third most common form of trash collected, with plastic bags in fifth place.
The issue came to the fore, according to Murray of Californians Against Waste, when the federal Environmental Protection Agency declared trash as a pollutant and started setting maximum daily amounts of garbage that could enter the nation's streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, bays and seashore.
"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."
http://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/stories/2003/05/05/daily2.h
The Associated Press, 5.2.03
BANS: In some parts of rural Alaska, grocery bags are outlawed before they become airborne trash.
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. The villages are among at least 30 communities statewide that have banned plastic bags.
They're horrible. They're all over," said Bethel City Councilman Jerry Drake. Once, he said, driving to the airport outside town, "in a one-mile stretch I counted over 200 bags." Looking out his living room window earlier this week, he counted a dozen.
In Bethel as elsewhere, plastic bags flutter out of trash bins or ravens peck them loose. They drift and lodge in bushes and trees, dot the roadsides and collect on the trackless tundra.
Several years ago, Bethel public works director Clair Grifka said he looked out his office window and saw an enormous flock of snow geese. Then he realized it was 800 to 1,000 errant bags.
Sorry! Article no longer available online.
New York Times (Subscription), 4.20.03
They are shredded specters and they seem, at times, to be everywhere in the city: snagged on trees, floating in rivers and hustling down the windy streets. They are the legions of plastic supermarket bags that break loose from their owners and wind up in all kinds of public places. And landfills. And in a pile beneath the kitchen sink. Following Ireland's lead with its enourmously successful PLASTAX, New York City is the first major U.S. city to be seriously considering implementing a plastic bag tax.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/nyregion/20BAG.html?ex=10521119
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