The Australian Broadcasting Corporation today announced that a man named Australia's local hero for 2005, is a baker from the island state of Tasmania.Ben Kearney, 32, of Coles Bay, was nominated for the award by community members, for his efforts in ridding the tourist resort of plastic bags. The town has since become a model for community-based environmental campaigners throughout Australia.Mr Kearney accepted his award during Australia Day festivities in Canberra, and says he will share it...

CBS News today carried a story saying that San Francisco officials believe that the city spends 5.2 cents per bag annually for street litter pickup and 1.4 cents per bag for extra recycling costs.San Francisco may become the first city in the United States to charge shoppers for grocery bags. The city's environmental commission 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. Their goal is to reduce plastic b...

Winston Churchill founded The Hansard Society in 1944 to ensure that government remained truly representative of the peoples’ wishes. Today it sees weblogs as a powerful medium for the expression of these wishes and encourages parliamentarians in England to become familiar and recognize this medium as the basis of e-governance.At their site http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/programmes/e-democracy/blog_intro they’ve listed 9 weblogs as commanding “respect in the ‘blogosphere’”. One of these ...

Malta today imposed a tax on plastic bags. Smart guys. They have one of the most beautiful environments in the world and they intend to keep it that way. Amazing how the little countries catch on fast. God was so kind to the US in so many ways, but their government doesn’t seem to have caught on to such a simple logic. Plastic bags are bad for your environment. Taxing them reduces usage sharply. So, instead of raising taxes and making everyone pay for cleaning up that problem, why not focus t...

Patagonia and Body Shop are just two of the New Age brands that have built their appeal on EcoLogic; meaning a deep and sincere respect for the environment. You don’t need mega bucks to earn that kind of respect. As long as you are sincere and act on your beliefs. Saying so across a million ugly hoardings will achieve less than one customer walking out of your store carrying a reusable cloth bag with your logo on it. Every consumer who looks ate it will know that you act on what you believe....

Some people are succeeding in doing completely without plastic bags. The Mercury, an Australian daily tells of how the tourist town of Coles Bay celebrated their first plastic bag free anniversary! Here's what the story said:President of Coles Bay/Freycinet Tourism Association and bakery owner Ben Kearney said an estimated 350,000 plastic bags had been saved from the environment or landfill. You've got to hand it to these guys. The Australians are achieving a lot even without the tax. On a v...

Cherri Gann, associate editor at PPAI wrote an article in December 2004 where she concluded that bags are a wonderful promo choice.“One great thing about bags is that everybody uses them,” says Andrew Spellman, vice president of corporate markets for TRG Group in St. Louis, Missouri. “Since everyone has stuff to hold, there’s not one person who doesn’t have a bag of some sort. Promotionally speaking, there’s an inherent use value for the recipient, and this means, for the advertiser, there’s ...

Here’s a completely new genre of magazines. Not restricting itself to the folks who give ecological living a dowdy image, these guys are telling you that a sustainable lifestyle needn’t be boring or lacking pizzazz.In fact, it’s a whole new aesthetic.Their website is http://www.plentymag.com In a well written story about the launch of this magazine, James Gorman of the New York Times says “Her name is Abigail. She comes from Ford Models in New York. And her outfit is accessorized with a hos...

I’m sure the words Papua New Guinea don’t immediately bring a picture of progressive governance to your mind (probably conjures up exotic images of tribals and beaches) but don’t underestimate them - just look at this major step they’ve taken. The Papua New Guinea government has ordered a ban on plastic shopping bags in a bid to curb a major littering problem across the country.To give them credit, many Indian state governments have also banned plastic bags, but when you look around you, it ...

Shelley Lazarus, the head of Ogilvy, talks about 360 degree branding here http://www.ogilvy.com/360/ . Take the time to visit. It’s well worth it. Even if you’re not in marketing. In fact, it is more relevant to the heads of companies than to marketing people. The concept is simple and powerful.Your brand (and this includes corporate brands), must be relevant to your customer; must stand for something that she or he values; something he considers meaningful.Then, all your communication; ALL...

Most North Americans urinate plastics. Sperm counts are at a historic per capita low. Cancer is an epidemic.Shouldn’t plastic bags be made to carry this mandatory warning? There are no safe plastics; all plastics migrate toxins into whatever they contact at all times.Tax the bags, say Californians Against Waste. And I completely agree. It works. Ireland taxed 'em just 12 cents and usage fell 90% in one year. How's that for effective?There is a proposal to tax grocery shoppers of San Francisco...

"Recycling" and future "bioplastics" they say “distract people from keeping plastic out of their lives”. "Disposal" of plastics is a joke, they say, because we are never rid of the stuff. All the plastic that's ever been produced is still with us today... unless, of course, it has been incinerated which spews a plethora of toxic substances into the air.Paul Goettlich is the director of Mindfully.org, a nonprofit dedicated to exposing the effects and costs of technology on our bodies and socie...

The best choice isn't paper or plastic, says Wayne Parker in an article in the Pacific Business News. He adds “When faced with the question of paper vs. plastic bags at the local supermarket, the correct choice, according to environmental officials, is neither of the above. The best environmental choice is to skip a bag altogether, or if one is necessary, shoppers should take their own reusable shopping bags”. You bet, Wayne! Plastic bags get used once and then continue to contaminate our pl...

Time was when we all worried about it, the Irish, the Scots, the South Africans, the Australians, us Indians… but the Americans didn’t.Everyone else’s worrying and all the clean-up action lost meaning because it’s the Americans who consume most of the stuff on earth, and use – and throw away the most plastic bags too. So, seeing this article in Newsday gave me great joy. That’s one thing I love about the Americans. Once they pick up a cause, they run with it with an energy and intensity that ...

They're cheap, easy and everywhere: As many as a trillion plastic bags are used worldwide a year. But would Americans kick their plastic addiction if they had to pay for them? Alaskans call them "tundra ghosts" and "landfill snowbirds." In China, they're "white pollution." South Africans have sarcastically dubbed them their "national flower." Snagged in treetops in Ireland, they become "witches' knickers." The bags are not just a blight, but are wasteful, kill wildlife, pollute oceans and ma...