Right in our backyard last night, exciting things went down at the Portland City Council meeting. City councilors voted to charge a disposable bag fee AND to ban polystyrene food and drink containers. Consumers will be charged a nickel for every paper or plastic disposable bag used, starting April 15, 2015. Continue reading
Category Archives: Plastic Bag Bans
Disposable Bag Fee and Ban on Polystyrene Approved in Portland, Maine
Plastic Bag Bans: Kids Enacting Change
Kids all over the world make things happen every day. When it comes to plastic bag bans, sometimes the kids’ voices are the loudest.
In York, Maine, a group of high school students are trying to ban plastic bags. Ambitious? Perhaps. But that’s not stopping them from trying to make their hometown the first in the state to successfully enact a ban. Continue reading
Free Rush: Reusable Grocery Bags in A Hurry
Hey, L.A.! Your plastic bag ban hits on January 1…are you ready? No? Well, Bulletin Bag [.com] has you covered! We have a large selection of reusable grocery bags that can be rushed at no charge. This means that in short order, you can have a very powerful marketing tool in your hands to distribute!
Plastic Bag Bans Coming Your Way? New Folding Shopping Bags Worth Looking At
So you live in Los Angeles, where plastic bags are most likely going to be banned starting in 2014. What to do? Take advantage of the opportunity and choose a fabulous folding shopping bag to put your logo on! Here are two new Bulletin Bag [.com] options worth considering:
A Country Without Plastic Bags?
Imagine a nation that eliminates plastic bags. Think it’s a pipe dream? Perhaps, but if Jim Moran has his way, the US could be one step closer to making that a reality.
U.S. Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) unveiled a bill on Earth Day that he calls the Trash Reduction Act of 2013. If passed, a five-cent fee on single-use plastic AND paper bags will be imposed at every retail store across the country.
“According to the Environment Protection Agency, the average American throws away about 4.4 pounds of trash each day. The results of this waste can be found in our oceans, now home to floating landfills ten times the size of Virginia. Small steps like replacing plastic bags with reusable ones yield large returns in reducing the amount of trash we create,” said Rep. Moran. Continue reading
Plastic Bag Recycling? Not So Fast …
Last month, we wrote about a draft ordinance in Portland, Maine, to ban plastic bags. While it ultimately didn’t take off here (yet!), it has definitely gotten the community talking.
Local landfill and waste managers are speaking up about the damage that plastic bags are doing at their facilities. Three years ago, we first talked about how plastic bags wreak havoc at recycling facilities. Well, that problem hasn’t gone away. C’mon. You really can’t be surprised.
Even though there is a recycling symbol on plastic bags, and even though modern recycling technology makes it possible recycle almost any household item, plastic bags should not be recycled in your curbside bins. Automated single-stream recycling equipment can’t sort them—even if they don’t blow away first.
Another Plastic Bag Ban: Portland City Council to Draft Ordinance
Plastic grocery bags could soon be a thing of the past in Portland, Maine.
The City Council has formed a workgroup tasked with drafting an ordinance to reduce the use of plastic grocery bags. The group is comprised of people representing Environment Maine, the Maine Restaurant Association, the Maine Audubon Society, and the Maine Grocers Association—as well as local business owners and residents. The group is considering both bag bans and fees.
More Reusable Bag Support Leads to Renewed Statewide Interest
More and more cities in California have joined the reusable grocery bag movement—enough to prompt a second look by the state’s legislature. With West Hollywood’s recently passed bag ban, there are now over 10 Southern California municipalities that have approved local ordinances that regulate plastic bag use—with two more going into effect this year.
Other cities, including Los Angeles, are considering bans as well, and are at various stages of the process. If the L.A. ban is proposed and approved, the city will be the largest in the country to ban plastic bags.
West Hollywood, Others, Embrace Reusable Bag Movement
A ban on single-use plastic bags goes into effect in West Hollywood today for stores (including clothing stores and newsstands) larger than 10,000 square feet. The gradual rollout gives smaller stores until August 20 to comply. Shoppers must either bring reusable bags, or buy paper bags made with at least 40% post-consumer recycled content for 10 cents.
This ban is just one of many in effect, or being debated, across the country as the negative effects of plastic bag use are increasingly being highlighted.
Reusable Grocery Bags: More Kids Making a Difference
On February 7, two fourth graders in Weston, Connecticut, will be submitting a petition to their town selectmen. They are trying to ban plastic grocery bags, and have collected 150 signatures on a petition in support of that.
Colleen Moore, 10, had the idea for the petition as part of an assignment in her Project Challenge class at school. “I wanted to do something that was good for the environment and this seemed like a good idea,” she said. Fellow student Julia Morledge, 9, has partnered with Colleen to help move the idea forward.
