After five years of the plastic bag tax, Ireland has changed the image of cloth bags. Vincent Cobb, president of ReusableBags.com said: "Using cloth bags has been seen as an extreme act of a crazed environmentalist. We want it to be seen as something a smart, progressive person would carry." Read more...

Our Take: Ireland has paved the way. What other countries, cities or states will step up, find the political will and follow suit?

The Whole Foods Market chain announced that it would stop offering plastic grocery bags, giving customers a choice between recycled paper or reusable bags. It will take effect by April 22, Earth Day. Read more...

Our Take: Are bans the right incentive to reduce consumption of plastic bags? What do you think? Comment here...

Wanna see what 60,000 plastic bags looks like (the number used in US every 5 seconds) or 2 million plastic beverage bottles (the number used in the US every five minutes)?....

Our Take: We discovered this art series, which looks at contemporary American culture through the use of statistics. Great to see the artist chose plastic bags and bottles - two issues we are helping to tackle - to convey his powerful messages. Read more...

Prime Minister Gordon Brown signaled that he will use the law to stop supermarkets giving away free plastic bags within the next 12 months. He has praised Marks & Spencer, which announced that it would impose a 5p charge on bags. Reminded of the scale of the problem every week when he saw the number of bags his family's shopping generated, the prime minister said that he was now willing to use compulsion to ensure that others stores followed the M&S lead. Read more...

In Illinois, members of a recycling task force are brainstorming ways to reduce plastic bag waste but an outright ban on the petroleum-based bags is not likely. However, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Plastic Bag Recycling Act, calling for a voluntary, two-year pilot program in Lake County to determine the cost to retailers who implement plastic bag recycling programs. Read more...

Our Take: Measures like this highlight the 2 extremes - on one side is a complete ban of plastic bags, which puts retailers on the defensive, and on the other is a mandate to recycle bags, which does nothing to curb consumption. We're interested in the middle ground, and advocate reusable bags which both curb consumption and limit the use of plastic bags.

Many common household products contain compounds that could be affecting our health. The shocking thing is that we really don't know the health effects of many of these chemicals on the market today. These include brominated flame retardants, phthalates and the plastic strengthener bisphenol A (or BPA), found in many baby bottles, sippy cups, and juice containers. Read more...

Our Take: ReusableBags.com has been providing education, leadership and safe alternatives for the past five years. With more awareness of these issues, we hope to see some real change! A reminder that all the bottles we carry are BPA- free.

Check out this video montage set to Simon & Garfunkel. Watch video...

Our Take: Nifty video meant to make us think twice about using plastic bags. We like to watch this video with the volume turned down since this song, while beautiful, is a huge downer!