How Fast Can You Bag Your Reusable Grocery Bags?

February 25, 2011Green IssuesEventsBulletin Bag

Last fall, we told you about the Best Bagger Championships. The contest shifted from plastic bags to reusable grocery bags at its 2010 event.

The 2011 Best Bagger Championships were held last week, and Krystal Smith, a bagger at the Hannaford supermarket in Burlington, Vt., was crowned the best grocery bagger in America. She completed her challenge in 38 seconds!

The contest is a year-long, nationwide program in which the best-of-the-best grocery baggers in the country compete for great prizes and the title of America’s Best Bagger. Contestants are judged on speed, bag-building technique, weight distribution between bags, and style, attitude and appearance.

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Two Ideas For Your Unwanted Plastic Bags: Make Gasoline And Beds!

February 17, 2011Green IssuesEnvironmental, Recycling, SustainabilityBulletin Bag

Now that you’re dedicated to using cool printed reusable grocery bags, what will you do with your surplus of plastics that have accumulated around your house? Here are two nifty ideas that made news this week.

1. Make gasoline! A Japanese inventor has created a machine suitable for home use that can turn plastic waste into fuel. Akinori Ito’s machine heats up household plastics, traps the vapors in a system of pipes and water chambers that cools and condenses them back into crude oil. The crude is suitable for use in generators and some types of stoves and can be further refined into gasoline.

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Ziploc and RecycleBank Launch Recycling Program

February 10, 2011Green IssuesPlastics Reduction, RecyclingBulletin Bag

Reusable sandwich and snack bags are becoming more popular, but there are still millions of American households that still use plastic sandwich bags. In response to that, Ziploc and RecycleBank launched a new recycling program to help reduce the environmental impact of Ziploc plastic bags. The new program includes a rewards component to customers who commit to recycling their used Ziploc bags instead of throwing them away.

SC Johnson, owner of the Ziploc brand, understands the recycling limitations of its products and is thinking of different ways to offset the environmental footprint of its plastic bags. Now, it’s easier than ever to recycle Ziploc bags. Consumers stop by any store that offers a plastic-bag recycling program and place used, clean, and dry Ziploc bags in plastic shopping bag recycling collection bins.

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Printed Reusable Grocery Bags Help Green OSU Campus

February 4, 2011Green Issues, Promotion IdeasContests and Giveaways, Plastics Reduction, SchoolsBulletin Bag

paper_plastic_neither_bag 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.

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Reusable Bags for Shopping Lead to Solar Power

January 27, 2011Green IssuesContests and Giveaways, Environmental, SustainabilityBulletin Bag

Remember our blog back in 2009 about Colorado ski towns Telluride and Aspen? The residents battled to see who would hold bragging rights over using the most reusable bags for shopping—and earn new solar panels for its high school. That original competition resulted in the 2009 Colorado Association of Ski Towns (CAST) Reusable Bag Challenge.

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.

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Reusable Bag Law Launches in Kauai and Maui

January 17, 2011Green Issues, Plastic Bag BansEnvironmental, Plastics Reduction, RecyclingBulletin Bag

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.

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Bulletin Bag [.com] Pledge: End Plastic Bag Use in 2011

January 4, 2011Green IssuesEnvironmental, Plastics ReductionBulletin Bag

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.

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Reusable Grocery Bag Etiquette

December 20, 2010Reusable Bag Tips#WashYourBags, Plastics ReductionBulletin Bag

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 (and don’t forget to wash your bags before you get that far):

Empty your reusable shopping bags completely
Wash your reusable bags regularly. Not sure how? Here’s a guide to cleaning reusable bags
Place your reusable grocery bags at the front of the conveyer belt so the cashier knows you have them
Separate your reusable shopping bags so the cashier can easily grab each one as needed. Also, specify which bags are meant for what products (meat, dairy, etc)
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.

Reusable Grocery Bag Use Still Being Proposed

December 10, 2010Green Issues, Plastic Bag BansEnvironmental, Plastics ReductionBulletin Bag

The start of the holiday season, and recent hype about the possibility of lead in reusable grocery bags, has done little to deter lawmakers from moving forward with proposals designed to increase reusable bag use. Here are a few of note:

Little Rock, Arkansas

Sen. Denny Altes has prefiled a measure for next year’s legislative session that would prohibit larger stores from providing plastic grocery bags to customers. The Reusable Shopping Bag Act, would allow the use of paper bags and would require the sale of reusable grocery bags at stores of more than 10,000 square feet with gross annual sales of $2 million or more. Despite the proposed ban not extending to smaller stores, they too can support the bill by reselling printed reusable bags.

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Bulletin Bag Reusable Grocery Bags Routinely Tested for Lead Safety

November 17, 2010Bulletin Bag ProductsPrinting IdeasBulletin Bag

Recently, some high-profile chains reported the existence of varying levels of lead in some of their reusable grocery bags, and some pulled their reusable shopping bags off the shelves because high levels of lead were detected in the ink used to imprint the bags or the reusable bags themselves. At about the same time, Senator Charles Schumer sent a letter (see below) to the Food and Drug Administration, urging the agency to investigate the issue.

Bulletin Bag [.com] works hard to earn our clients’ trust. Our ability to deliver high-quality reusable bags to you is enabled in part by the long-standing relationships we have with our factories. These factories monitor production and regularly test our bags to ensure compliance with the CPSC and CPSIA regarding lead levels. Despite what you might have heard over the last few days, not all reusable bags contain lead, and you can rest assured that the reusable bags you purchase from Bulletin Bag [.com] will comply with all CPSC and CPSIA guidelines for safety.

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