Can’t wean from the plastic bag? …become a minimalist!

“Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced this month that he would push for a 6-cent fee on each plastic bag, both to raise as much as $16 million a year for the city in its economic slump and to steer New Yorkers toward greener practices — switching to bags they can use over and over.

Yet even those who agree with the idea say the weaning from such a symbol of waste could be particularly difficult, if not painful, in a city with New York’s quirks.

In interviews over the past week, many shoppers said the city’s largely carless, minimalist style did not easily lend itself to toting canvas or heavier plastic bags around like another accessory. Many also pointed out that the plastic bag is hardly a throwaway — indispensable, they said, for cleaning up after pets, camouflaging the smell of a dirty diaper, hiding an open can of beer or simply holding other trash.

Environmental groups like Natural Resources Defense Council support the idea of a surcharge, saying the goal is to make people switch to reusable bags and to conserve resources. “If you end up reusing a plastic bag 5 times or 10 times, that could replace 5 or 10 of the flimsy bags that are now used,” said Eric A. Goldstein, a senior lawyer with the council in New York. Whether durable plastic or cotton, the reusable bags are a greener alternative as long as they are, in fact, used and not forgotten in a closet, he said.”

Excerpts from a New York Times Article by MIREYA NAVARRO. Published: November 17, 2008

HERE IS AN INTERESTING FACT, “PLASTIC BAG ADDICTS” MIGHT WANNA TAKE TO HEART

By REDUCING plastic bag consumption by only 2 bags a week, you will throw a way at least 100 plastic bags a year…. do the math…, if we all would make the effort and give it a sincere shot, we could happily live with a much smaller amount of plastic bags.

… and for those who don’t want to tote around town with 4-5 canvas bags. There are actually some very creative “foldup” styles out there, you can easily hide in your purse:

NONWOVEN ZIPUP TOTE in 12 fun colors

NONWOVEN STORE AWAY TOTE bottom folds up

The canvas tote – a fashion statement – as popular as the TEE?

Is the canvas tote the new TEE? Why not… as an article in the Guardian confirms – the tote is more than an eco-trend… – it also makes for a great fashion-statement… just like the ever popular T-Shirt… read more…

It would be great if we’d truly experienced an eco-epiphany, but the success of the reusable bag is as much about style as saving the planet. Like T-shirts and badges, the square-shaped shopper is the perfect blank canvas for slogans, logos and patterns. Consumers who couldn’t give a toss about the planet love its fashion statement just as much as the green contingent loves its ethical credentials.

At last month’s Fashion Week the designer shopper replaced the paper goodie bag at shows from Mulberry to Marc Jacobs. Fashion East, a London showcase for young designers, asked new talent David David to create theirs. ‘The shopper is a billboard and a status symbol,’ he says. ‘It’s perfect merchandise.’

It’s certainly the first bag taken up by pensioners and hipsters alike, and the green movement hopes there’s life in it yet. Eco entrepreneur Kresse Wesling created Sainsbury’s new reusable bag from used jute coffee bean sacks. (The Guardian)

The canvas bag revolution. Photograph: Alicia Canter

What a “spooky” Craft Project for Halloween

What’s my favorite holiday? Halloween! Why not trick-or-treat in style with a custom tote bag to carry your candy? and while you’re at it, let’s customize your pumpkins with some co-ordinating images as well!

I used the owl stencil to customize an inexpensive, natural canvas tote bag.

I masked the outside areas with paper and used the BROWN Stencil1 Sprayer to paint with.
Then I used acrylic paint and a stencil brush to stencil a deer on one pumpkin. I then stencilled a mini jolly roger onto another smaller pumpkin.

here’s how they all came out! Now you’re ready for trick-or-treating in style!

This Halloween stencil set is available at Stencil1.com, where we found this fun article. Your affordable and fast source for “craft totes” is http://www.conventiontotes.com/BlankTotes/ProductList.aspx?cid=5 48 hours shipping for all non-decorated totes!

This is just one of the many fun tote projects out there. … we thought worth sharing!

Are you using your GREEN tote bag?

FROM AN ARTICLE RECENTLY PUBLISHED IN THE NYT : …Getting people to actually use their bags is not an easy matter. Maximizing the benefits of your tote bag requires changing deeply ingrained behavior, like getting used to taking 30-second showers to lower one’s energy and water use. At present, many of the bags go unused — remaining stashed instead in consumers’ closets or in the trunks of their cars. Earlier this year, KPIX in San Francisco polled 500 of its television viewers and found that more than half — 58% — said they almost never take reusable cloth shopping bags to the grocery store.

Viktor Koen

Phil Rozenski, director of environmental strategies at the plastic bag maker Hilex Poly Co., believes even fewer people remember to use them. Based on consumer surveys conducted by the company, he says roughly the same number of people reuse their bags as bring disposable bags back to the grocery store for recycling — a figure he puts at about 10% of consumers, according to industry data. This month at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, marketing professor Baba Shiv dedicated the first day of a weeklong seminar on green marketing to the “road blocks” facing reusable bags. He says it can take “years and decades” for consumers to change their shopping habits, and only when there’s a personal reward or an obvious taboo associated with the change: “Is it taboo yet to be carrying plastic bags? I don’t think so.”

 

ConventionTotes Eco-Totes at the Emmys

September 20th, 2009

Upcoming actress Malin Akerman [Couples Retreat, Watchmen (picture below)] was spotted sipping an organic Cuca Fresca Cocktail at the sustainable “Salt Bar” of the Eco-Emmys Celebrity Gifting & Wellness Chateau Event while carrying her Natural Side Pocket Tote (FLA3) made of 100% Natural Cotton, a courtesy of Conventiontotes.com.

Celebs Enjoy Cool Drinks and Green Totes at the "Emmys Eco Event"

This charitable event hosted by Debbie Durkin as well as Main Event Red Carpet Lounge & Green Suite in partnership with Platform Media Group (PMG) honored the 2009 Primetime Emmy award nominees, presenters and VIP guests.

Benefits from ticket sales go towards charitable organizations such as :

• Susan G. Komen for the Cure® (Los Angeles County Affiliate), an organization that supports local breast cancer services and national breast cancer research;
• i am that girl, a charitable organization dedicated to celebrating the unique diversity, beauty and possibility of every girl and woman;
• Arx Pacifica, a non-profit organization revolutionizing the interaction between art and mainstream society; and
• spcaLA, an organization dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals through education, law enforcement and intervention.
  

Among the celebrities present were Jessica Biel, Kristen Bell and Paul McGill. Other guests included cast members of 90210, Desperate Housewives and HBO’s Grey Gardens.

“We’re delighted with the high caliber and quality of our participants this year,” concludes Durkin. “It not only gave us both something truly substantial to offer our celebrity and industry guests, but also encouraged their contributions to both our green and charity partners and beneficiaries.” The Main Event Red Carpet Lounge & Green Suite in honor of the 2009 Emmy Awards surely was a successful and unforgettable event.

To Conventiontotes.com participating in the “Eco-Emmys Celebrity Gifting & Wellness Chateau was a no-brainer – being part of a consciously selected theme promoting ecological awareness and supporting charitable organizations of such importance, while having the opportunity to feature one of our most popular eco-friendly canvas totes is a triple win. Thank you for identifying Conventiontotes.com as a “Green Company” and selecting us as a participant for this event.

Bagging The Problem

Excerpt from an online article in the WSJ. Various studies have examined whether paper or plastic grocery bags are environmentally friendlier. The studies that look specifically at grocery bags generally conclude that paper bags produce less of a litter problem, but that plastic bags consume less energy and water and produce less pollution, including greenhouse-gas emissions. So the choice is a tradeoff between environmental priorities. Virtually all studies say the environmentally friendliest option is to choose a reusable grocery bag, and to reuse it many times, regardless of what that bag is made of. See a selection of recent studies below.

• This study for the government of South Africa evaluates a proposed plastic bag ban that took effect May 2000.
• This 2000 study sponsored by European paper-bag producers looks not at grocery bags, but at larger shopping bags.
• A 2004 study by EuroCommerce, a European business group, evaluates different strategies to reduce use of plastic bags.
• This 2005 study for the Scottish government (Volume 1, and Volume 2) concludes that while reusable bags are preferable, paper bags “have a greater negative environmental impact than conventional plastic carrier bags.”
• Paper producers published this rebuttal to the 2005 report for the Scottish government, saying it drew inapplicable data from this 2004 study sponsored by French retailer Carrefour. (In French)
• This 2007 study sponsored by U.S. plastic-bag makers concludes that a standard plastic grocery bag has “significantly lower environmental impacts” than a paper grocery bag.

Canvas Book Bags help Promote Reading

Libraries are getting creative when the task is to motivate youngsters to become compassionate readers. One example we’d like to share is of the Tippecanoe County Public Library – that has proven to be working. Maybe this can be an inspiration to some of us trying to create similar programs:

The 16th annual Family Read Aloud program is under way in the Tippecanoe County Public Library system. The registration deadline is Sunday.

The theme is “Chill Out & Read,” said Carol Stult, head youth librarian at the downtown library.

“We do it to encourage family togetherness, to read together, to highlight our collection, and to promote literacy and reading,” she said.

She said the monthlong Family Read Aloud program offers prizes as incentives.

“Families participating earn prizes for spending time at home reading together,” she said.

Families keep track of the hours spent reading aloud.

Prizes range from stickers and bookmarks for the first hour; Moe’s Kids Meal or Friends Book Bucks for the second; a canvas tote bag for the family for the third hour; and a family paperback book for the fourth hour.

The program is sponsored by the Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union, the Friends of the Tippecanoe County Public Library and Moe’s Southwest Grill.

Other programs at the library are part of the Family Read Aloud effort. There are regular storytimes for infants, toddlers and preschool children at the youth library downtown.

The Klondike branch and campus library at Ivy Tech Community College also offer family storytimes.