The Lantern, Ohio State University's campus newspaper, reports that OSU Campus Dining Services joined the campus-wide effort to go green this fall by making the switch from plastic bags to reusable polyester bags. Prior to the start of the 2011-2012 school year, plastic bags alone were available at most campus dining locations for students to carry their meals home in.
Last fall, more than 10,000 reusable grocery bags were distributed to students—at no cost—in an effort to eliminate plastic bags. OSU has been toying with printed reusable grocery bags since last year, when orange reusable bags could be purchased in residence dining halls.
The orange bags were purchased with Campus Dining Services money, as were the black reusable grocery bags. Sustainability committees are reimbursing the money as part of campus's sustainability project.
Every student living in residence received at least one free black reusable bag. The bags were also distributed at Off-Campus Student Services.
The reason behind the switch was not monetary, but seen as a push towards sustainability. The school has also done away with disposable trays.
Robert Hayes, operations manager of Marketplace on Neil Avenue, said he has gotten mixed feedback from the students.
"It goes both ways," Hayes said. "You've got your folks that really appreciate the effort to save materials and cost and you've got your folks that just complain about the inconvenience [of not having plastic bags or trays]."
The solution? Hayes said he keeps a surplus of the black reusable bags and distributes them whenever students need them or ask for them.
Why are we writing about this two years later? The town that won the Reusable Bag Challenge just debuted a new $50,000 solar power system at its middle school—a system that was created because of the town’s victory back in 2009.
Basalt took first place in the contest between 32 mountain towns in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. The town with the highest per-capita reusable grocery bag use rate at the grocery store was awarded $10,000 to build a solar power system. Participating stores in each town tallied the amount of people who came in with their own reusable bag for shopping during a six-month period between March and September, 2009. Basalt won by eliminating 48 plastic bags per person during the contest, according to the Community Office for Resource Efficiency.
The town of Basalt, through its “Green Team,” then applied for more grants through various sources and raised an additional $40,000. The additional funds were put toward making the solar installation larger. That photovoltaic system is now projected to produce 13,000 kilowatts-hours per year of electricity.
As the solar installation will be on Basalt Middle School grounds, the system includes a monitoring component that will allow students to see in real time how much power is being generated. The solar system could also be incorporated into math and science curriculum.
Want more reason to cheer? Basalt town officials are now considering legislation to discourage and ultimately ban the plastic and paper disposable bags given away at the grocery store.
In Hawaii, Kauai and Maui are leading the way by banning single use plastic bags that easily find their way into water streams, ocean currents and the stomachs of birds and fish. The laws went into effect on January 11.
On Kauai, all commercial businesses, including restaurants and takeout food establishments, are restricted from providing plastic bags at checkout. Recyclable paper bags and biodegradable bags will replace plastic. Businesses that fail to comply face a $250 per-day fine for the first notice, $500 a day for the second notice, and $1,000 a day for the third. Plastic bags are permitted for raw meat, poultry, produce and bagging up bulk foods. Dry cleaning plastic garment bags are exempt from the ban.
On Maui, all businesses, including restaurants, are restricted from providing non-biodegradable bags to customers at checkout. Businesses are required to provide recyclable paper or reusable bags for sale or at no charge. Maui business owners face fines of $500 per day for noncompliance. If the violation continues, the daily fine will be doubled on the first day of each 30-day period and can be increased up to $1,000 per day thereafter.
As Oahu still tackles a toxic smoldering fire from trash that was being stored for shipping, proponents of a statewide ban on plastic single use bags say they will put forth another bill before this legislative session ends.
Around the world, four to five trillion plastic bags are used each year
Every one of those bags takes an average of 750 years to decompose
Roughly 46,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating in every square mile of ocean
One hundred thousand marine mammals and sea turtles will die this year from ingesting plastic
Got your attention? Ready to do something about it?
Join Bulletin Bag [.com] in our efforts to reduce plastic waste by increasing the use of reusable bags. Sign our pledge, show your commitment, and share your ideas on reducing plastic bag consumption.
I pledge to bring reusable bags to grocery stores, retail stores, and farmers' markets to carry my purchases
I pledge to recycle or reuse the plastic bags I already have
I pledge to inform others of the environmental harm from plastic bag waste so they can also make this pledge
Sign our petition here. Please note that you will be leaving bulletinbag.com for a third party site.
Want to learn more? Check out some of our blog entries that speak to the environmental dangers of plastic consumption:
We all know why to use reusable grocery bags over plastic and paper single use bags. But, we also need to remember that this shift in buyer behaviors is also forcing a shift in the way our cashiers and baggers do their job. Here are a few common-courtesy ideas for when you hand over your cool, printed reusable bags to the bagger:
Open folding reusable bags while you are waiting in line
Show respect to your cashier by saying please and thank-you, helping to bag, and ending your cell phone call
When putting groceries on the conveyor, group heavy/bulky things together to be packed into the bottoms of your reusable grocery bags. The lighter items can go on top until each reusable bag is full.
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In Hawaii, Kauai and Maui are leading the way by banning single use plastic bags that easily find their way into water streams, ocean currents and the stomachs of birds and fish. The laws went into effect on January 11.
We all know why to use 
