Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A day without a bag


Got this email today from the crew at the Surfrider Foundation. What a great idea, especially during the holidays with all the shopping going on!

A Day Without a Bag is an education and grassroots event started by Heal the Bay in LA that involves businesses and individuals throughout Southern California and beyond. On this day we ask holiday shoppers and retailers to forgo single-use, plastic shopping bags in favor of reusable bags. In addition, Surfrider will be handing out reusable bags in conjunction with the Cities of Encinitas and Oceanside.

DID YOU KNOW:
- Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute.
- Californians throw away 294,000,000 pounds of plastic bags every year, or 147,000 tons.
- 600 plastic bags are thrown away every second in California.
- Most of the bags we use are NOT recycled! They are littering our oceans, beaches, landfills and killing animals & birds.

On Thursday December 17th, please tell your friends and family to forget the single-use bag at the store and get hip with a reusable bag. Here are a few tips on remembering your reusable bags for the next trip....

Keep your bags in your car, Write "REMEMBER BAGS" at the top of your grocery list each week, Hang a bag on the door knob to your garage or someplace near by, Keep a reusable bag or two in your purse or backpack, Ask the kids to remind you to bring your bags as part of earning their allowance.

By the way, we will be adding these to the Maku Ecoshop in the next couple of days

Sunday, December 13, 2009

The Sunday Paper


Quick Eco Fact - If every one of us in the USA recycled a Sunday Newspaper over 550,000 trees would be saved every week!

In fact - In 2000, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) said that pulp, paper, and paperboard mills account for 12 percent of total manufacturing energy use in the U.S.

I continue to say that print media is dead (perhaps dying is a better assessment) and can't remember the last time I picked up a newspaper other than being bored in the airport and perusing the bookstore. Otherwise I prefer to get my info online...

By the way, a quick plug for the Maku Ecoshop, we have lots of cool recycled items like Bucky and Fred
that come shipped in recycled packaging!