A number of initiatives in jolly old England are underway. First of all, the ever-popular Virgin Megastores chain has decided not to distribute any more free plastic shopping bags at any of their stores. But guess what – I don’t have access to that article. Those of you who subscribe to Retail Week Online can click on this link to read more. Those of you who don’t will just have to trust me on this one.

At the same time, we have the entire community of Wellington rallying around the same cause, doing what they can to reduce their plastic bag waste and use. If all goes well with their initiative, which starts with cashiers asking people if they want bags (rather than automatically distributing them), then there’s a possibility of a nation-wide launch of this program. We’ll all just wait and see…!

Like most great things, this comic about the plastic monster was discovered by accident. It’s a cartoon in a completely foreign language but the pictures tell the story likely far better than the dialogue ever could…

So I’ve been following what’s been going on in San Francisco pretty closely, and I admire their efforts to reduce their bag count. The fact that the respective grocery stores are hesitant to cooperate and reveal their bag numbers is a little bit irksome, but also understandable – that information will most likely come back to haunt them in the very near future.

What’s interesting to me though, is the figure that appears in this article written for the Examiner, discussing the goal of reducing San Francisco’s bag usage by 10 million, which comes out to be about 95 tons. 95 tons! NOT an insignificant figure – 209,439.15 lbs for those of you who are trying to do the math. So it’s especially puzzling when I read opinion columns like this one from The Toronto Star, stating that plastic bags make up a really insignificant portion of landfill space. According to 680 News, Ontarians use an average of 4 bags per week, which comes out to about 2.5 billion bags per year. Now let’s make a conservative estimation and say that Toronto accounts for 30% of that figure. Guess what – still not insignificant. 750 million bags would, by that math, be… well… a LOT of landfill space.

If that’s considered an insignificant figure, then Toronto has much bigger issues than figuring out where next to fill a landfill – they have to figure out how to become less of a waste-oriented society.

A state in Australia is coming up with a comprehensive and inclusive approach to their plastic bag problem. The press release links to a number of external sources, including the Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement. It’s good reading. I’m talking to YOU, newly-minted Environment Minister…

City News in Toronto aired a segment last night on the Toronto City Councillor’s attempt to pass a PlasTax. It also features various grocery stores and their respective attempts to curb plastic bag use, including those great GreenBoxes from Loblaws…!

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.

No news stories so far today, so I’ll entertain you all with a little anecdote:

Yesterday I was at one of my 4 local grocery stores. This is the only store of the 4 that offers reusable bags, and while I don’t buy theirs because I have my own (and mine are much nicer), it’s still not unreasonable to expect that the cashiers would have adjusted to the reality that some people bring their own bags.

Not so much.

I had three items, the largest of which was my ritual weekly tub of Cherry Garcia. The three things scanned and I passed the cashier my reusable bag. She proceeds to put the food into the plactic bag, which she then placed in the reusable bag, and all the while I’m not paying attention because I’m focused on my debit transaction. So she hands me the bag and I look inside, look up at her, and say, “Really? Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose?” And she shrugged.

The lesson is this: Cashiers – if you’re reading this (and I know some of you are) – the reusable bags are to replace the plastic bags; they’re not meant as a carry-all for them. If our goal is to reduce the number of plastic bags that we use, please help us achieve this. Sheesh!

Well, maybe I don’t. But did anyone else notice these little numbers in the Louis Vuitton Spring collection? Reusable shopping bags are the new black.

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.