History of Plastic Bags: How Did We Get Here

WHY ARE SINGLE USE PLASTIC BAGS EVERYWHERE? Plastic bags are ubiquitous and most people don’t question it. Why? Less than 50 years ago plastic bags were a rarity. Now you it seems like you can’t buy anything without it being carried out in a branded plastic bag. If we can understand how we got ourselves …

Reusable Grocery Bags: Good or Bad for the Environment?

Are reusable grocery bags good or bad for the environment? For every news article that tells us ‘Reusable bags are better for the environment’ there seems to be another one saying ‘Reusable bags are not really eco-friendly’. The arguments for and against the environmental sustainability of reusable shopping bags can be confusing, so what’s the truth? …

Pros and Cons of Reusable Grocery Bags

What are the pros and cons of reusable grocery bags? Plastic is threatening many aspects of life these days. With 4.8 to 12.7 million tons of plastic ending up in the world’s oceans each year, and 80% of that coming from the land and coastlines, there’s overwhelming concern about the plastics we use in our every day …

How do reusable bags help the environment?

It’s common to hear that reusable bags – the ones you can use many times over, for months or even years– are great for the environment because they replace single use plastic bags. But why is this such a good thing? Why are single use plastic bags a problem? Many global and local problems are …

Legislation Against Plastic Pollution

Use less. Recycle more. Buy this. Don’t support that. When talking about pollution, especially plastic pollution, the conversation often targets individual action. The choice, and therefore responsibility, always seems to lie with the individual. And while these shifts in personal choices are by no means futile, it is also imperative that we look to our …

How To: Stop the Use of Plastic Bags

Stopping The Use of Plastic Bags “Plastic should be a high value material… [It] should be in products that last a long time, and at the end of the life, you recycle it. To take oil or natural gas that took millions of years to produce and then to make a disposable product that lasts …

Never miss another headline about the plastic pollution crisis

Insightful news about the world’s growing plastic pollution problem,delivered to your inbox – free – every Monday. “This is where I get my news.” – Ken Cook, founder, Environmental Working Group #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend …

No Place is Safe from Plastic

It seems we are hearing about plastic a lot these days. The environmental impact of disposable bags, the nearly 20 billion pounds of plastic entering our oceans each year, the rising amount of sea life whose lives are endangered from plastic – The list goes on and on. But just how pervasive is this plastic …

Bans, Taxes, and Fees: The Politics of Plastic Bags

It has become common practice around the world to use disposable plastic bags to assist us in our every day lives. Out of mere convenience and utility, the plastic bag has become a go-to resource for in-store purchases, big or small. However, in light of current of research pointing to the environmental impacts of plastic …