Are You Still Using a Plastic Bag?!

Of course. We all are.

First I started rejected plastic bags when I bought a pack of gum, then I thought, if I have space in my bag for this items, why should I add 2 more bags to my pile of 50 that I already have in my house? Then the “Environmental Friendly” bags became the ‘it’ thing. It became so ‘it’, that the “I’m Not a Plastic bag” bag was selling for $300 and women of Manhattan were displaying them like it was a rare diamond on their left hand. I bought my environmental friendly bag (few years ago) for $.99 at the 99c store and I couldn’t have been more proud. I even bought one for my good friend, who later gave it away to another friend and when I confronted her about it she was without one care in the world. She honored my outrage by simply replying “I need them for my garbage”. How ironic!

San Francisco was the first city in the U.S. to implement a law in which the customer is charged $.05/bag. Plastic bags are made of a valuable resource (petroleum) and people most often dispose of them after they carry their stuff home. They end up in landfills of many years and are costly to recycle. I couldn’t have been happier when I heard of the news from SF and I dreamt of one day moving to SF and mixing with all of those people who care so much about the environment. I even e-mailed Mr. Bloomberg to adopt the same policy but I never heard from him. Last year he announced a similar plan, but very recently students have raised good question about the plastic bag law:

>Where is the money going to go and will it benefit the environment?
>If you are already spending $100 in groceries, are you really going to care about spending a few more dollars on plastic bags?
>Are paper bags included?
>And finally (my question) will this law hurt the poor?

Since the popularization of grocery bags (mostly made out of cotton) most people I know have one. They come in different colors, size, and messages. Most big businesses offer their own brand of environmental friendly bags. Indeed, they benefit from a decrease in use of plastic bags from consumers because they have to buy the plastic bags and don’t charge their customers for them.

Do your part in reducing the amount of plastic bags you use in 3 simple ways:

1. Buy one of those stylish environmental friendly bags… they are very cheap and make you look smart (er)
2. Ask yourself, can I carry it?
3. Say "Don’t double it”
In the papers: D.C. shoppers opt for roughing it over paying 5-cent bag tax
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012202151.html