I just read an article in The Decatur Daily which is published in Alabama, where Vickie Brooks, front-end manager for a store called Kroger says that stores in Washington, DC are charging customers 31 cents per plastic bag.This came as news to me. Searching for this only led back to this one story. I hope this is true. Reusable cloth bags will begin to look truly viable to shoppers in DC and clean up that city’s environment in no time. A 12 cent tax reduced plastic bag usage by 95% in Ireland...

B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore discussed the power of transforming ordinary transactions into experiential events in their book, “The Experience Economy.” “It’s not about entertaining customers, it’s about engaging them,” they wrote. Kevin Roberts, CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi, recently built on Pine and Gilmore’s theory of customer engagement in “Lovemarks, The Future Beyond Brands,” his new book. Successful direct marketers are in the experience business; they court their customers in i...

Martin Sloane of The Birmingham News got a tremendous response to his article on switching to reusable bags. So great, that he’s decided to kick off a contest. To enter you have to decorate a reusable bag (no paper or plastic, folks) and send clear picture of it to Martin at the Birmingham News or email it to him at site4savings@hotmail.com The winner gets $ 100, the second prize is $ 50 and third prize is $ 25. Kids are encouraged to enter, and the winning photos get featured at Martin’s we...

When you’re headed for your next trade show or conference or event, consider reusable fabric bags as your giveaway. Visitors love receiving them because it facilitates carrying all the literature they collect. The fact that folks will carry them around the show displaying your logo and plugging your presence is only the immediate benefit. Much after the show is over, they will still be using them (no one throws them away) and literally become a walking billboard for you. But there’s more. Peo...

Alex Steffan, who writes a brilliant blog at http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002465.html noticed my blog and wrote “I love obsessive geekery for a good cause, and I believe I have stumble upon the Ur-site, the Platonic example of the form: the Badlani blog which focuses, essentially entirely, on news about the ongoing global efforts to reduce our use of plastic bags. Yes, that's right: it's an anti-plastic bag blog. Pretty good one, too, full of interesting little tidbits like San Fran...

Australia’s Northern daily just published an article about how local councils have contributed huge sums of money for calico bags to be distributed free to residents. The 13 participating councils are Armidale Dumaresq, Glen Innes, Gunnedah, Guyra, Gwydir, Inverell, Liverpool Plains, Moree, Narrabri, Tamworth, Tenterfield, Uralla and Walcha.Vanessa Tiernan, project co-ordinator for the Northern Inland Regional Waste Group, said yesterday each of the group's 13 constituent councils had contri...

Karama Neil, a lovely lady from Little Rock, Arkansas, wrote a blog about the harm plastic bags are doing and mentioned my blog as being a good reference source. Thank you, Karama. It’s nice to be acknowledged, particularly by a person as accomplished as you. Karama's weblog is at http://sowhatcanido.blogspot.com/2005/04/say-no-to-plastic-grocery-bags.html What a great concept “So what can I do?” I disagree about paper bags, though. Cutting down a tree that takes years to grow, lugging it t...

Mary O'Keefe from Pompano Beach just wrote an article in the Sun-Sentinel in which she mentioned how she initially though California’s proposed 17 cent tax on plastic bags was ridiculous and a burden on the consumer. But she quickly changed her mind. Here’s what she says.“Then I went to my local grocery store and again came home with numerous plastic bags. Several bundles had two and three bags for one item that was not breakable nor particularly heavy,” “I have changed my position. The one d...

Martin Sloan, writing in The Birmingham News, has just written a great piece “Reusable Bags could catch on”. One look at this picture and you can see why they have to catch on!He quotes folks who have appreciated the need to use reusable fabric bags instead of choking our world with plastic bags. More power to you, Martin. Folks like you will save our planet, despite the myopia that most of the world still demonstrates.See how attractive and economical reusable fabric bags can be at www.bad...

A story in the Daily Post reported The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is renewing its demands for government action after an increase in plastic-based litter on beaches in Wales during its annual Beachwatch survey.Andrea Crump, MCS's litter projects co-ordinator, said a tax on plastic bags in Ireland reduced waste by 90%."Plastics such as nets and bags are known to entangle marine animals, which can drown as a result, she added, "bags and small plastic pieces can also be swallowed by marin...

Kathryn B. Brown, a family health nursing professional, points out in the East Oregonian that using plastic bags and drinking bottled water isn’t good for people. “All this unnecessary plastic in our world is unhealthy for people and the environment” she says, contrasting her own environment with what she observed in countries that are taxing plastic bags, “the difference was the lack of plastic trash” Those countries don't see this kind of sight any longer. I'm sure Kathryn would approve of ...

This little polypropylene bag is an absolute wonder. It has cut plastic bag usage in Australia by 1.18 billion plastic bags. That’s a lot of bags. The Australian carried an article about this in their issue of March 12th.Trends, says futurist John Naisbitt, are like horses, easier to ride in the direction they are going.Catch a trend early and you can use it to your advantage. And ecological concerns, especially about the harm plastic bags are doing to our environment, is one that is going i...

I just read a story by Eric Staats in the Naples Daily News about how the Colliers County tourism promotion guys had to give up their plans to give away plastic bags to tourists for shell collection when the county environment experts intervened. Nancy Payton, field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation praised the decision to pull the bags off the beach. Like most folks in the US they appear not to be aware that for just a little more than the plastic bags were costing them, the...

Daniel H. Trafford is the managing editor of the Kent County Daily Times and he’s written a article on a $250,000 advertising campaign to be launched to combat the problem of plastic bags blowing in the wind. It seems that their community spends about $1 million annually just picking up these bags that blow all over the place from trash being delivered to the Central Landfill It’s nice that they’re catching on. It would be even nicer if they followed the lead of places like Coles Bay in Austr...

My compliments to Arrissia Owen Turner for the well written article titled "Paper, plastic and pocketbook-could bag charge hit Big Bear?"Her article appears here http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/ In her article she's said "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 bu...