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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Change the World: Recycle bags




Last week's challenge: refuse plastic bags. Some stores in New Zealand charge ten cents per plastic bag. I am guilty of going shopping without a recycle bag and coming home with plastic bags. My excuse is I do recycle my plastic bags to line my rubbish bins.

My school recently issued us with this bright recycle bag, and I like it very much. It also has the message "Mind that child."

Some big supermarkets commissioned a local designer Trelise Cooper to design her "designer recycle bag." It costs a lot more than the ordinary 99 cts green bag. The idea they thought was customers would be proud of owning Trelise Cooper designer bags and would use them. I don't know how effectively the idea is.

You may like this anecdote. I bought a Trelise Cooper designer recycle bag to give it to a friend from Singapore. When I was paying for it together with some of my grocery items including some fish fillet, the check out operator wanted to put my purchases in my Trelise Cooper bag. I told her I didn't want to. She asked why, I said I was keeping it as a gift. She replied I could still put my grocery in it. I told her in a jovial manner, I didn't want my friend to have it smelling like fish.

In November I did a post on recycle bags.

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/2009/06/change-world-wednesdays_24.html

3 comments:

dinzie said...

Perhaps you should have bought 2 bags :O)

D

alicesg said...

Sometimes I bought so much thngs, my recycle bag cant carry them all...lol.

I do decline plastic bags if I already have a bag. Sometimes the fishmonger will charge me 50 cents cheaper for the fish if I dont want his plastic bag.... I was thinking ...what! the plastic bag cost 50cents or is he overcharging me all the time...lol.

Unknown said...

That was a funny story. :)

Have you tried any of the Eco-bags for trash can liners? Another one is the Bio-bag. Both are corn or soy based rather than plastic ... much kinder to the environment!

Like anything else, when we get in the habit of refusing plastic bags, it's easy. It's a small thing but has such a huge environmental impact. Thanks for posting about this subject!

Small Footprints