Elephants don't forget their bags

The Scottish Government is spending £466,000 on an advertising campaign to encourage people to reuse plastic bags. The advertisements on TV, radio and billboards use the image of an elephant to underline the "Don't forget" message.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Shoppers-are-urged-to-get.5064414.jp

JP Monkey
www.jpmonkey.com

Texas bill to charge a 7 cent bag tax

The Texas Legislature is considering a bill that mirrors efforts in cities across the state and nation to reduce the use of plastic bags or charge for their use. Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, thinks a 7-cent tax on plastic bags in Texas could be part of the solution to ending use of the ubiquitous and environmentally unfriendly sacks. Under his bill, a small part of the 7 cents charged on each plastic bag would go back to the retailer while the rest would help cities run their recycling programs.

Virginia and Maryland also are debating similar fees for plastic bags and so are cities such as Seattle, Washington and New York. More than a dozen other cities have passed or are debating bans on plastic bags.
http://www.planetizen.com/node/37681

JP Monkey
www.jpmonkey.com

Schlumpy

Bag company, Blue Avocado, created a big ball of plastic bags and rolled it around various cities to raise awareness of the million plastic shopping bags Americans use each year. The video can be found at http://sustainablog.org/2009/03/13/help-schlumpy-get-1-billion-plastic-bags-off-of-the-street/#more-4295

JP Monkey
www.jpmonkey.com

Reduce plastic bag consumption in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Food Association and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection signed an agreement 3/12/2009 committing to reducing the number of disposable plastic and paper grocery bags distributed in the state by a third in the next five years.

http://www.milforddailynews.com/state/x1676802437/Using-plastic-bags-may-be-a-hard-habit-to-break

The hope is to cut the use of bags at supermarkets to 1 billion annually, from 1.5 billion, by 2013. According to the ACC, plastic bags use 70% less energy to make than paper bags and emit 50% less greenhouse gas during production.

http://www.smartbrief.com/news/acc/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=599AB3CD-D4C2-44E5-B0DF-D95FBB4567B2&copyid=2AE85B23-A8BF-44EC-9B64-F2EFEED43705

JP Monkey
www.jpmonkey.com