Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Nov 01, 2009
Here's a video from Capitol News Service. The report tells us that Florida could be the first state in the nation with a plastic shopping bag ban. Their Department of Environmental Protection has developed a five year plan that would either ban the bags or charge a fee for their use.
Good segment about the free market influence; a local food coop removed plastic bags as an option in order to raise awareness.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Oct 29, 2009
Press Release
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Today non-profit, government and business groups joined together to kick off the "Got Your Bags?" campaign - a public education and outreach effort aimed at encouraging Californians to use reusable bags for shopping and bring plastic bags back to the store for recycling.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Oct 28, 2009
CVS pharmacy has come up with a clever program to encourage shoppers to cut down on the use of single-use plastic bags. They've introduced the GreenBagTag which pays back their ExtraCare program members for declining plastic bags when making a purchase. The GreenBagTag is available for purchase at any CVS store, all of which participate in the program. There's no charge to join the ExtraCare program, which gives 2% back on most store purchases.
Here's how it works: The GreenBagTag, which costs 99 cents, is scanned at checkout along with the ExtraCare card every time a customer uses a reusable bag (or carries out without taking a plastic bag). On every fourth scan, the tag holder receives a $1.00 credit that can be used on most store products.
"CVS/pharmacy is committed to improving the lives of the people and communities we serve, and that inc
ludes helping all our customers adopt more eco-friendly practices," said Bari Harlam, Vice President of Marketing for CVS/pharmacy. "We have a long history of rewarding our customers with incentives that are both convenient and beneficial to their well-being. Our new GreenBagTag program provides an easy way for shoppers to take a small step in going green, while also receiving Extra Bucks as a 'Thank you!' for joining us in making an impact in the fight to reduce waste from disposable plastic bags."
Another laudable aspect of the program is the fact that the GreenBagTags are made with corn-based material and 100% recycled silicone. It's also packaged in 100% recycled paper.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Oct 27, 2009
We'll be joining Bialas Farms again at their annual pre-Thanksgiving open house in their barn on Celery Avenue in New Hampton, NY. The Bialas' are kind enough to open their Winter CSA pick-up days to some other local farmers and vendors twice each season.
The Thanksgiving open house will be held on Sunday, November 22 from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm. We'll be offering our natural jute and cotton shopping bags, jute back packs, and our new jute wine bags. We'll also have some of Bialas' heavy extra large CSA bags, which we produced for them earlier this year.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Sep 22, 2009
Had
savetheplasticbag.com put forth only reasonable and provable arguments in support of plastic shopping bags, the site would be more helpful to those that wish to make good decisions in the "paper vs. plastic" debate. But then, we'd be deprived of the tragi-comic relief that it provides us with through its faulty logic and incomplete assumptions. That the nature of the site is based solely on the "paper vs. plastic" issue leads us to question whether it is built on ignorance, distraction, or both.
The problem with the question of "paper or plastic" is that it's a
false dilemma; the assumption that one must choose from two alternatives, when in fact there are other viable options. In their
Table of Advantages page, the exclusion of reusable shopping bags as a choice renders the comparisons practically unusable. Of course savetheplasticbag.com has an agenda, as do we. But it's intellectually dishonest to dismiss in full the reusable bag. And no, stating that plastic shopping bags are reusable doesn't count!
In future posts, we'll analyze the Table of Advantages line-by-line, including the reusable bag alternative.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Aug 19, 2009
Strike up another victory for the plastic bag lobby. The city of Seattle was to begin a 20 cent fee per non-reusable plastic or paper bag distributed at the checkout counter beginning January 1. The deep-pocketed Progressive Bag Affiliates, which "promotes the responsible use, reuse, recycling and disposal of pastic bags" (huh?), pumped $1.4 million into a campaign to bring the issue to a referendum. The law was voted down by the people today.
Progressive Bag Affiliates and savetheplasticbag dotcom (I won't link to them here) have been chasing down proposed "plasti-taxes" and bag bans across the country, helping to get many of them overturned. "Save the Plastic Bag" has launched a strange-logic campaign based on comparisons between plastic and paper bags, with little or no mention of reusable bags in their analyses.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Aug 18, 2009
Plastic bag ban update:
The Hartford Courant recently reported that Fairfield is a step closer to enacting a ban on plastic shopping bags. The town board will be voting next week on an ordinance that was passed unanimously by the Reusable Bag Ordinance Committee.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Aug 07, 2009
The Highland Park News reported yesterday on a public hearing over a proposed citywide ban on plastic foam packaging and single use plastic bags. Local restaurant and retail owners spoke out, claiming that such a law would place undue economic hardship on their businesses. 
Claiming that (unspecified) "alternative" packaging would cost three times more than current materials, one restaurant owner stated "I'm afraid if we raise our prices we're just going to drive people to the bordering communities where (those restaurants) don't have these pass-through expenses." Other opponents said that any new required containers would create the same litter problems, and advocated for better recycling programs.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Apr 08, 2009
70 six-week old chicks moved into a new sustainably built home, courtesy of some faculty, staff, and students of Vermont's Green Mountain College. The 130 square foot digs was constructed almost entirely from local materials at a cost of about $2,000.
"The lumber comes from white pine that was milled in town and the foundation and floor is made of slate supplied by a local quarry," said Lucas Brown, assistant professor of environmental studies at GMC. The only non-local building materials used are the roofing fasteners and the hardware.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Apr 01, 2009
Congressmen Ron Paul and Barney Frank are introducing a bill for the third time that would remove restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp. The Industrial Hemp Farming Act will be identical to HR 1009 which was introduced in the 110th Congress in 2007.
"With so much discussion lately in the media about drug policy, it is surprising the tragedy of American hemp farming hasn't come up as a 'no-brainer' for reform," says Vote Hemp President, Eric Steenstra. "Hemp is a versatile, environmentally friendly crop that has not been grown for over 50 years because of a politicized interpretation of the nation's drug laws by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)."
Hemp that is grown outside the U.S. has been used in the manufacture of natural soaps, eco-friendly auto parts, food products, and clothing. Proponents of industrial hemp state that it would be less expensive a crop to grow for the manufacture of fuels such as bio diesel and ethanol.
