Bag Monster® Sighting at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market!

Bag Monster® was spotted at this year’s 2010 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market lurking around the ChicoBag display booth. He is said to have been doing his best to persuade forward thinking individuals that single-use was the best solution. Bag Monster® was totally discounting ChicoBag’s mission to kick the single-use bag habit with bogus remarks that likened his plastic bag self to diamonds – which are also said to last forever! What he strategically left out was that diamonds don’t photo degrade into millions of tiny pieces harming the innocent fishes the way single-use plastic bags do! He even tried to perform death defying acrobatic stunts just to get attention. Face it Bag Monster® - nobody is interested in single use.

Stephen Colbert and Captain Charles Moore

Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report interviews Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Research Foundation and finder of the Pacific Garbage Patch. Captain Charles Moore schools Stephen Colbert and the rest of America on the realities of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the harm it causes marine life. Moore describes the Pacific Garbage Patch as, “decorating your Christmas tree and then having to live with the decorations all year.” If you’re an avid reusable bag user – this is a must see!

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Charles Moore
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

A Week In Review

San Francisco Bag War!
San Francisco Supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, aided in successfully banning single use plastic bags in large stores.  Now he pushes for a 10 cent refund to shoppers who bring their own bag. "Requiring that corporations share in the responsibility of being good environmental stewards is fair and new while we've been urging customers to do the same," Mirkarimi said. Some residents are outraged with the proposal while others think its just simply the right thing to do. Read More

Court of Appeal Throws Out Manhattan Beach Plastic Bag Ban! 
In 2008 Manhattan passed an ordinance banning plastic bags due the harmful effects they have when they enter the marine environment. However, on Thursday January 28th, 2010 the Court of Appeal threw out the ordinance. A presumed victory for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition – a sad day for the reusable bag movement. Read More 

Plastic Bag Legislation May Resurface In Sacramento, CA 
Assembly bills 68 and 87 would have required grocery and convience stores to charge 25 cents for every single-use bag a shopper brought out of the store. The money from the fee would have been used for environmental clean-ups, litter campaigns and donations of reusable bags through out California. While legislation did not make it out of committee - environmental groups will continue to push for bag legislation. Read More

A Week in Review

In the past three months Wal-Mart *gasp* has been conducting an experiment that would encourage customers to bring their own bag. The result? Three Northern California Wal-Marts have banned free plastic bags, Folsom, Citrus Heights and Ukiah stores.

Small bags cost 15 cents and larger bags cost 50 cents. "Walmart spokeswoman Amelia Neufeld says that this is a step in reducing Walmart’s plastic bag waste around the world by 33 percent by 2013."

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"The San Jose City Council's most vocal critic of the city's upcoming ban on plastic and paper shopping bags is now facilitating discussions with business leaders to help craft the new law before it takes effect in 2011."


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Win a FREE ChicoBag Brand Reusable Bag!

Did you know the world’s largest landfill can be found floating between Hawaii and San Francisco? Wind and sea currents carry marine debris from all over the world to what is now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This “landfill” is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and thousands of pounds of our discarded trash, mostly plastics. Learn the facts and be a part of the solution by kicking your single-use bag habit. According to the EPA, a sturdy, reusable bag needs only be used 11 times to have a lower environmental impact than using 11 disposable plastic bags. In fact, in New York City alone, one less grocery bag per person per year would reduce waste by five million pounds!

What are you doing to reduce single-use?

If you are a follower of this blog, leave a comment with ways you reduce single use and you'll be eligible to win a FREE ChicoBag brand Original!

The top 3 ideas will win! Not a follower? Sign up so you can stay posted with recent reusable bag information and become eligible to win a FREE ChicoBag brand reusable bag!

Bag Monster Week in Review

The latest in the reusable bag movement:

• Brownsville, TX hopes to ban plastic bags – becoming the first city in Texas to do so! Read more

• A 5 cent bag tax is pushed in both Maryland and Virginia to boost environmental funds. The tax could raise as much as 3.9 million! Read more

• Marin County, CA continues to push for a full paper and plastic bag ban. The goal is to have the plan adopted by January 1st 2011. Local teens hit the streets and parking lots educating their community about the harms of single-use plastic bags. Read more

• The Council for a Beautiful Israel called for a ban on single-use plastic bags in Israel. The bill is not yet finished but is a current work in progress. Read more

Track the entire reusable bag movement on this interactive map!

Paper or Plastic? Bag Monsters® Battle It Out

Check out this video created by Our Renewable Nation about reusable shopping bags. Carrick and his family spent May and June of 2009 traveling the U.S. on an eco-video travel project. Among their destinations was the ChicoBag™ Company in Chico, CA.

Carrick  was in search of answers about single use paper and plastic bags. He was curious about their effects on the environment, and wanted to know what alternative was best.  In an exclusive interview with Andy Keller, ChicoBag™ President and Inventor, Carrick gets the answers he is looking for and settles the question of paper or plastic, once and for all.

Watch the video to learn all about reusable shopping bags and the reasons they are a more sustainable choice than single use paper or plastic. Don't miss the Bag Monster® battle at the end of the video to find out who is victorious in the fight between paper and plastic bags.

Check out the extended version which features additional questions and answers from Andy.
Learn more about Our Renewable Nation, A Cross-Country Eco-Video Adventure