We at bringyourbag.com just wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of our readers a very happy new year.

 Stay tuned in 2007, when we’ll bring you even more news updates from around the world, inform you of new products and initiatives and open the dialogue up even further with ideas of how to keep the environment a little bit greener.

Have a happy and GREEN new year!

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…