While most people can not imagine a single day without having seen or used plastic bags on the streets, in their homes, inside the malls, coffee shops, needless to say everywhere… some cities around the world are moving forward with the idea of banning plastics bags for one day to at least get started and spread awareness on the very issue.

Click out the following two links to read more about what’s happening:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/shopping_blog/2008/12/discounts-and-r.html

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/south-wales-news/pontypridd-llantrisant/2008/12/11/ban-the-bag-call-as-town-leads-the-way-91466-22442559/

A Toronto city councillor (who is also the newly-appointed Chair of the Public Works Committee) has recently taken issue with plastic bags and promises to take action.

Right now he’s talking about charging the various stores based on the number of bags that they distribute. Call it a non-insiders hunch, but I bet soon he’ll change his tune and suggest charging consumers rather than stores, in an attempt to make more of an impact on consumer behaviour. We’ve seen this in Denmark and a few other European countries – if the tax isn’t transfered over to the consumer, there’s less of an impact and less of a reduction in plastic bags.

In either case – it’s a great first step in the right direction and I’m really looking forward to seeing where they go with this one…

In India, the city of Rajkot has an existing ban on all plastic bags less than 20 microns thick, as part of its cleanliness and environmental awareness drive. Great – they understand that plastic bags come loose from landfills and especially in that part of the world, have been known to block drain pipes and cause floods.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise, then, that they’re seizing bags from vendors and shredding them and then disposing of them. Seems to me that any problems caused by plastic bags would just be intensified when you multiply the number of pieces, wouldn’t it?

India, regardless of their ‘seize and dispose’ techniques, though, still remain very much ahead of the curve when it comes to tackling the plastic bag issue and coming up with sensible solutions that are not only beneficial to the environment, but tap into India’s abundant resources as well.

Once again, happy new year to all my loyal readers and reusable bag carriers!

Lots going on in the news, starting with the Irish Plastax levy being raised by 7 cents on January 1st. I really wish more countries would follow their example – not only are they on the right track, but they keep on updating their levy to ensure that people don’t start to get lazy on them.

Speaking of a tax, this was published on allAfrica.com, talking about why supermarkets charge so much for plastic bags in Mauritius, and that it shouldn’t be used as a fundraising tool. While I don’t really want to get into the numbers game, I’m a firm believer that if you charge people enough money for an elastic good, they simply won’t buy it. If plastic bags cost $1, everyone would bring reusable bags. It’s a consumer behaviour modification tactic, not a happy-go-lucky government money-grab, and I think they’ve got the right idea.

I love city officials with a sense of humour; especially ones that are Beatles fans. Chattanooga is introducing a recycling mascot named Rocky the Recycling Raccoon, to help encourage people to recycle and also to assist with public education initiatives. I guess Rocky is there to help with good recycling’s revival…?

And finally – I couldn’t have worded this better myself. Ok, maybe I could have. But it’s still nice to know that today’s youth are taking issue with plastic bags too.

Effective immediately, Kerala is banning all plastic bags (as well as bottles and cups) that are less than a certain thickness of fibre. The lighter and flimsier they are, the more likely they are to end up windborne or on the side of the road or in the ocean.

Stay tuned. There’s been a lot going on in the last little while that I’ll do an update on later on today. Very exciting stuff…

A few news stories from the last week or so, that I’ve categorized for your reading pleasure.

The Great

- Australians support a ban on plastic bags. Currently there is legislation in place to phase them out in the near future but apparently that’s not soon enough. Amazing!

- A columnist for a local Hamilton paper has got the right idea. It’s good to see these concepts being discussed closer to home, and hopefully more people will catch on and open up the dialogue, because even just heading to work this morning I saw dozens of bags lining the sides of Toronto’s highways…

The Good

- Hong Kong and their monthly “No Plastic Bag Day” campaign has been extended into 2007. It’s so successful that they feel it’s worthwhile to continue with it. Lots of stats and facts in this one, but all pointing in the right direction.

- While I don’t necessarily agree that diverting business from stores that give away free plastic bags is the right course of action, it’s at least nice to see that communities can come together and rally behind a common cause, and at the same time, support the smaller stores.

 The Mediocre

It’s a start. If nothing else, it’s nice to know that you can take back your plastic bags to stores and they’ll recycle them for you. But it’s also a little disheartening to think that the plastics industry has SO much power and influence that they were able to dissuade San Franciscans from passing a Plastax (like the one in Ireland), something they had been contemplating for quite some time…

The Very Very Funny

Sure, it’s 9 years old. But for your entertainment: The Taliban prefer plastic bags over paper. I’m going to let you write your own joke…

Peregian, a town on the Sunshine Coast of Australia, is going plastic bag-free as of January (though the launch of the campaign begins on Sunday). It follows the path of a number of other Australian communities (the first of which was Coles Bay, Tasmania) that have banned plastic bags.

Australia seems to be light years ahead of most other Western nations in their fight to combat plastic bags. Granted, the detrimental effects on ocean life are far more personal in coastal communities, but it’s still not something that should be taken lightly. Let’s get real here; Canada and the U.S. have coasts too!

In reading an article in the Daily Nation (Kenya’s newspaper), I came across this article in which Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai talks about how e-waste is a growing challenge in developing nations, especially those which lack the infrastructure to manage the e-waste.

Anyone else remember her from around a year and a half ago? She’s the one who helped lead the charge to ban plastic bags in Kenya. She cited research that claimed that plastic bags block sewers and drains, so the water just sits and stagnates. And if we remember anything from our Ministry of Health commercials each summer, it’s that stagnant water becomes a breeding ground for mosquitos which may carry West Nile Virus, or in Kenya, Malaria.

It might sound a little bit counter-intuitive, but Canada sure could take a page from Kenya’s book on this one.

What was once the fashion capitol of the world is now taking strides to be a global leader in another department: the environment.

An article found on PRW – The Plastics Industry News – suggests that while Paris had initially planned to ban non-biodegradable plastics as of 2010, a distribution ban could come into effect as early as 2007.

If this is actually the case, they would lead Europe in proactive measures against plastic bags. Currently, Ireland imposes a tax to consumers on every plastic bag that they use, Denmark charges a tax to retailers, and Switzerland requires supermarkets to charge for bags used. All of these measures have led to drastic behavioural changes such that now most shoppers bring their own reusable bags.