Billion Bag Blog

Well we've reached a milestone here at the BBB challenge - over 25,000 bags, bottles and bulbs kept out of landfills! Give yourselves a big round of applause - you deserve it!

I also want to acknowledge all of your efforts to bring this challenge to other "one use" items in your lives such as plastic utensils, straws, cup lids and the like. Thank you for bringing this level of commitment to your lives and your communities.

Some of us here in Phoenix are approaching our favorite restaurants with requests to reduce "one use" items and encourage people to bring their own carryout or leftovers containers. I know this is common in other parts of the country, but it is a paradigm shift here in the Wild West. Stay tuned to see how we progress and feel free to add your own comments here on what you do when you go out to eat!

Jennifer
Your Guide to Green staffer

Bottled water impacts

These figures for 2006 highlight the problems many associate with the production of plastic bottles of water in the United States.

•More than 25.5 billion plastic water bottles are sold each year in the US.•

•More than 17 million barrels of oil (not including fuel for transportation) were used in plastic bottle production.

•Bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

•It takes approximately 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water.

•The total amount of energy used to produce, transport, refrigerate, and dispose of a plastic bottle of water may be as high as the equivalent of filling a 1 liter bottle one-quarter full of oil.

Source: Waste Management World, The Pacific Institute

Whole Foods Market Inc. announced that it will gradually phase out the use of plastic grocery bags in its 270 stores with the goal of no longer using them by April 22, which is Earth Day.

The Austin, Texas-based grocery chain said it will encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags and will offer 100 percent recycled paper grocery bags when needed.

"More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides," A.C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer for Whole Foods Market, said in a statement.

(from:http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2008/01/21/daily10.html)

This is great start to ridding the planet of plastic bags. I hope it gets a LOT of notice and that other grocery chains follow their lead as customers gain more awareness.

I don't know if anyone here has ever seen a mass accumulation of hundreds of thousands of these bags in the environment, but I sure have. Back in the early 80s, I lived in Taiwan. When the harvest moon festival came around, friends and I climbed to the peak of a mountain in the pre-dawn with several thousand Taiwanese to see the sun rise above the cloud level. This was a beautiful and inspiring sight - the sun slowly tingeing the clouds farthest away with the faintest gold, then a rushing of more intense golds and reds as it rose ever higher in the sky. We lingered to bask in glory. But as the day warmed, the cloud cover burned off, revealing a scene that broke my heart - thousands upon untold thousands of plastic bags had built up in the valley below. They clogged a small river, hung from the valley sides and caught in the trees. The view was eerie and dead looking. No birds welcomed the morning.

I live for the day when we no longer treat our environment like a giant waste recepticle. And I am inspired by the folks at Whole Foods and everyone on this challenge for committing to a greener world.

Jennifer - Your Guide to Green Blogger

According to the Northumberland Gazette (UK):

"Newcastle residents are the most environmentally friendly in Britain after saving more than eight million plastic bags in less than two years, according to supermarket bosses.
Tesco said 8.1 million bags have been saved in its Kingston Park Extra outlet."

How'd they do it? The plan is pretty simple:

--Shoppers were encouraged to reduce the amount of plastic bags they would normally use by a third on each shopping trip.

--Customers are rewarded for not using plastic bags by getting 'green' points on their Clubcard loyalty cards which can be redeemed for food or other goods. Checkout staff asks shoppers how many bags they are reusing and agreeing the number of points to be awarded - now that's co-operation!

Jennifer