I’ve long admired Britain’s The Independent as being one of the more thinking news entities. This brilliant and thoughtful article by Michael McCarthy, their Environment Editor (how many other news bodies even have an Environment Editor?) proves me right.

Why are we asking this now?

Because yesterday the Government’s anti-waste body, Wrap, announced that plastic bag use in the UK

This article from the Denver Post points out how important it is to get legislation right when addressing the problem of plastic bags.

Encouraging people to move toward reusable shopping bags is a good idea.

We get that, and support it.

However, the bag-banning measure blowing through the state legislature has morphed into something that will be counterproductive to its laudable aims.

Originally, Senate Bill 156 would

The Aspen-Telluride area is not going to let it happen. I just read this news release today:

Aspen-Telluride bag challenge expanded

Beginning March 1, 26 mountain towns including three in the Roaring Fork Valley are competing in the 2009 Colorado Association of Ski Towns (CAST) Reusable Bag Challenge, to see which town can minimize their use of single-use, disposable shopping bags the most. The competition will end

In an article in the D.C. Examiner Harry Jaffe invokes Bob Dylan’s famous song to remind us just what’s blowin’ in the wind nowadays. Plastic bags.

Or, he continues, floating by if you are

Ever imagined them yucky plastic bags could become fashionable and eco-friendly?

An exhibit held last month at an LA store featured one-of-a-kind dresses made from plastic bags and other recyclable materials, designed by local L.A. artists.

Reusing plastic grocery bags and other material like cardboard, mussel shells, string, burlap fabric, wire and Christmas lights, the designers created pieces to demonstrate “how a mundane object, often used as

People judge you by what you do, not what you say.

Close your eyes for a moment. Now think of Rolls Royce. Or Mercedes, or Nike, or Toyota.

Each of these names evokes very clear thoughts, feelings, and images. They all have a strong corporate identity, or brand, associated with their name, and it is no accident. These companies have spent a lot of money getting you

The red carpet at the Academy Awards is going a little green this year. A reusable dry cleaning garment bag by Chicago-based Dry Greening will be the official “swag bag” for one of the Oscar after parties.

It marks the first time ever that a dry cleaning accessory will be featured in the gifting lounge at one of the premier Oscar after parties.

The bag on offer

Over one billion single-use plastic bags are given out for free each day. Free? The term is misleading. To understand the real costs, we must consider the “cradle to grave” multiple impacts and the effects of each phase of a bag’s life.

Phase 1: Production Costs

* The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that increase our dependency on foreign

According to a new research study conducted by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), among businesspeople over age 21, revealed that advertising specialties beat out all forms of TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available. The average cost-per-impression of an advertising specialty item is $0.004, making it less expensive per impression than nearly any other

The worldwide recession has made it even more unviable to recycle plastic bags. It was always an expensive and unviable proposition, but today is has become completely unaffordable.

This article from the Boston Globe spells out the story.

Plastics, Benjamin? Not in Somerville, not now. On Jan. 14, the city announced that residents could no longer put recyclables in plastic