It's the only planet we have folks!

This morning a nice young lady came by to discuss what she’d read on my blogs, to talk about how she and the organisation she works with – The Center for Environment Education – could get Ahmedabad conscious of the harm plastic bags are doing.

I was thrilled. I’d given up on my own home town (shame on me!) and she reminded me that there’s no need to. That thinking and concerned folks do exist right here.

I blame myself for not having thought of the people and resources that Ahmedabad has. The CEE in itself represents an immediate and potent force for change.



Thank you, Vinutha, for stopping by.

I enjoyed discussing the issue with her and I’m sure we can put some of the fun stuff we discussed into action soon.

She’s asked me to put together an article on how ecological action can become relevant to businesses here and I’m going to have a blog up on that in a couple of days.

Watch, as they say, this space!

Yesterday Mumbai city was inundated by floods. The megacity, India’s business hub was paralyzed.



The cost: Billions of dollars and a miserable day for residents who couldn’t make it to hospitals, schools and places of work.

Most flights were either cancelled or diverted to Ahmedabad, and trains were cancelled or ran hours late.

Mumbai has an intense monsoon. You can expect incessant downpours at least 4 times every year.

The downpours aren’t new. They’ve been coming to India’s west coast for hundreds of years.

But the intensity of flooding is new and getting worse every year.

One of the major culprits is the increasing number of plastic bags that are choking drainage systems.

India actually has laws banning the use of such plastic bags, but like most laws in India, they exist only on the books. No one knows about them, no one follows them, and no one appears to care.

Ironically, India is a major exporter of reusable cloth bags.

We ship reusable cloth bags http://www.badlani.com/bags every day of the week to other countries as they take effective steps to reduce plastic bag usage, but we don’t have any customers in India.

This weblog is being acknowledged by readers around the world as a good source of information on the problems caused by plastic bags and the solutions communities have found, but again, hardly anyone in India reads it.

Help!

All concerned, thinking people, please help get our people and governments more sensitive to this problem. Talk to me, we'll try and figure out ways to do this together.

Reusable cotton shopping bags are to be distributed free to shoppers on a trial basis to encourage people to reduce the number of plastic bags they use, under the the 'Fantastic it's not plastic!' initiative.



Cotton shopping bags will be handed out at the shopping precinct on North Deeside Road during the promotion and local children at Culter school are also being encouraged to participate in the initiative.

Amy Gray, Aberdeen City Council's Business Waste Minimisation Officer says, "Aberdeen City Council is encouraging residents to become more waste aware. Refusing plastic bags at checkouts is a simple step anyone can take to reduce the amount of waste they produce. Aberdeen City Council is also lobbying for the introduction of a tax on plastic bags in line with other forms of packaging."

The UK now produces and uses 20 times more plastic than it did 50 years ago.

Around 10 billion plastic bags are handed out by supermarkets and other retailers in the UK every year.

Scots alone take more than 18.5 million plastic bags home from shopping trips each week, according to research by the UK's largest home improvement retailer B&Q.

Every year Scotland uses approximately 1 billion plastic bags, this equates to 200 plastic bags for every man, woman and child in Scotland.

If national averages are applied to Aberdeen then local residents are sending some 1000 tonnes of plastic bags to landfill each year.

The average household is estimated to have 40 plastic bags stuffed in cupboards or drawers.

Ireland introduced a levy on plastic bags in March 2002 under the Waste Management Act 1996, reducing usage by 90%.

Plastic bags are a major cause of unsightly litter and they also harm wildlife.

The amount of petroleum used to make one plastic bag would drive a car about 115 metres.

Plastic bags that end up at sea are easily swallowed by marine life that mistake them for food. An estimated 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine life die every year after swallowing plastic bags.

In many council areas, plastic bags are the single main contaminant of kerbside recycling.

In a report by Audit Scotland it is envisaged that waste is estimated to grow by 7% per annum, compared to a 3% predicted within the National Waste Strategy. The UK's appetite for free plastic bags shows no sign of diminishing despite many voluntary schemes such as bags for life, boxes or recycling of plastic bags.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that awareness of the problem is increasing by leaps and bounds and is opening up the market for ecologically responsible products.

An aggressive campaign positioning reusable bag users as being trendier and more glamorous and plastic bags users as being Neanderthals can achieve faster change.

There’s a huge branding opportunity inherent in this.

Patagonia and Body Shop are two very successful brands that have positioned themselves as being the smarter choice for their ecological concerns are a case in point.

If you’d like to give your brand that kind of panache, choose from the attractive and economical options at http://www.badlani.com/bags

Your logo on one of our reusable bags will position you as a responsible, forward thinking brand.

That’s how I got into the business of reusable cloth bags. My daughter Kaajal came home from school one day and banished them from our home.



Little girls know they have that magic. They can make wonders happen. They can banish things. And it works.

This not-so-little girl-now helps me build and maintain this website and market reusable bags all over the world. She still has the passion and the conviction!

To effectively rid your community of this ghastly substance, engage the kids in your community.

If they decide that plastic is harmful, they will have a bigger influence on their parents than any amount of sloganeering and advertising can do.

Would it be difficult to convince kids of this? No. Kids are more open-minded than grown ups are. Treat them with respect, give them the facts, and watch them achieve what governments and activists have not been able to achieve.

Read the stories on this weblog. There are enough facts and anecdotes to build a lesson plan from. If this isn’t enough, write to me and I will either find you what’s missing or do whatever you need to deliver the message.

Actually, encourage the kids in your class to read the blog themselves to extract what they consider relevant to their lives.

Then, encourage them to start their own weblog where they tell stories of how their efforts are working out in your community.

Tell your local media about the blog the kids are writing. I’m sure they will find it interesting.

You’ll be amazed at what this can achieve.

Here’s a wonderful story from http://www.smh.com.au/

A class of 11- and 12-year-olds in Australia is leading a push to make the Royal National Park towns free of plastic bags, the first time a school has instigated such a ban.



The Bundeena Public School year 6 campaign - "No plastic packing for Port Hacking" - started with an environmental education project. The snorkelling students were disgusted at the number of plastic bags they found floating in the waterway.

The 28 students followed this with a litter survey, letterboxed homes and yesterday called a public meeting to build support for a possible phase-out of bags by September 1.

The students are challenging other schools in the Sutherland Shire to follow suit. Nationally, about eight towns and suburbs have ditched plastic bags altogether and many others are planning to do so.

Charlotte Bawden, 12, said: "It's the whale season right now and some whales have been found with plastic bags in their stomachs. It's hurting the animals. The turtles think the plastic bags are jellyfish and they eat them."

Bundeena and nearby Maianbar are surrounded by national park, Port Hacking and the Pacific Ocean.

Hayden McLaggan, 11, said the students were keen whale watchers - they saw five humpbacks yesterday morning - and wanted to protect the mammals from man-made threats such as plastic bags.

Planet Ark project manager Doug McLean said: "This is the first town where the children have led the way."

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has just banned plastic bags and brought in $200 fines at a rock-fishing site at Wattamolla in the national park.

Bundeena and Maianbar, with a dozen shops and a combined population of 3000, are similar in size to the Tasmanian tourist town of Coles Bay, which was the first town to ban plastic bags.

Some Bundeena cafes have already stopped supplying plastic bags. The owner of The Fish Exchange, Bruni Ullrich, sells calico bags for $1.10. "People love it after it sinks in," she said.

Warren Mason, a partner in the largest retailer, IGA Bundeena, said it was a "wonderful idea in theory" but would require a re-education program for consumers to change old habits.

"There are people who buy a two-litre bottle of milk, which has a handle, and they still want it put in a plastic bag," he said.

It’s a sad thing that most smaller Australian stores don’t know how affordable reusable cloth bags can be. I hope some of them check out our prices at http://www.badlani.com/bags

The Australians are leading the world in a voluntary switch away from plastic bags, but the results are clearly not enough.

According to figures from this year's Clean Up Australia campaign, retail sectors other than supermarkets have only reduced their plastic bag use by between 10 and 15 per cent over the past couple of years, and the number of plastic bags in the litter stream is rising rather than falling.

Figures showed that while major supermarkets had achieved a near 27 per cent reduction in the number of plastic bags issued in the past year, other stores had been slow to follow.

IBISWorld general manager Jason Baker said the problem was that in many cases the significant costs involved outweighed the benefits for the companies, despite what might be best for the environment as a whole.

"Until companies, and therefore consumers, are forced to pay the 'full cost' of producing polluting energy or other products - including paying for the cleaning up and avoidance of air and water pollution, or recycling and disposal services - they won't be encouraged to develop 'clean' alternatives, such as wind power or effluent-free farms," Mr Baker said.



In contrast consumption of plastic bags in Ireland dropped 90% within a year of imposing a 12 cent tax on plastic bags.

The problem is very serious and taxation appears to be the most productive way to go.

Clean Up Australia says men are the weaker sex when it comes to saying "no" to plastic bags.

A national Newspoll conducted by the environmental organisation shows 50 per cent of women are likely to refuse a plastic bag, but just one-in-three men say 'no'.

A third of men surveyed say they prefer to use plastic bags over reusable bags, compared to just one-in-five women.

Everyone’s been telling me this for years. That we’re the dumber sex.



But could it be that we are just more insecure?

No woman’s feminine identity is threatened by being seen carrying a cloth bag for her groceries. Are men concerned that they’d look like wimps carrying a cloth bag? Most cloth shopping bags are designed to look like the kind of totes women carry.

A corporate client (a male) who regularly orders giveaway bags for the trade shows he attends on behalf of his company gave me some insight into this.

Most totes, he mentioned, look too feminine, and male visitors to trade shows feel awkward carrying them.

We worked with him to design a jute + cotton tote with longer handles that men could sling over their shoulders without getting this feeling.

He wrote in after the show telling us that the design was a big hit, and preferred by everyone (males particularly, but women included) to the bags other exhibitors were handing out.

It was particularly gratifying, he added, that most folks catching flights out after the show, had his bags slung over their shoulders at the airport also.

At Norquest, we work hard to find the most appropriate solution to our clients’ needs and enjoy putting in the effort to customize solutions for their needs. See the vast selection we have on show at http://badlani.com/bags and if you don’t see something that appeals, brief us and we’ll work towards creating a bag for your specific needs.

Sensitivity to such issues can go a long way in encouraging everyone to reduce plastic bag usage. Younger people would prefer backpacks. We have a great line of very economical backpacks too.

Who said all shopping bags need to be cut from the same cloth?

Our laws are some of the most progressive in the world, but enforcement is zilch.

We have strict laws against production, storage, use, sale and distribution of polythene bags.

Himachal Pradesh, a state that earns much of its revenues because of its scenic beauty, was the first to implement it. In theory.

In theory you can be fined upto a lakh of Rupees (US$ 2000) or be sent to jail for upto 7 years.

In practice, no one has ever paid that fine leave alone spend time in the cooler.



Most Indian citizens are completely unaware of the law and you see plastic bags flying around everywhere.

The Indian cow, considered sacred and an object of worship, is one of the worst victims. 95 per cent of urban India’s stray cattle are suffering from various ailments due to hazardous materials inside their abdomen. 90 per cent are plastic bags.

We ship reusable cotton bags every day of the week to the whole world from our website http://www.badlani.com/bags but we have no buyers in India.

A story in today’s Indian Express talks about how 95 per cent of urban India’s stray cattle are suffering from various ailments due to hazardous materials inside their abdomen.

90 per cent of that was plastic bags.



This, while a website about Hinduism says “The cow has almost become a symbol of Hinduism…in India, the cow is believed to be a symbol of the earth - because it gives so much yet asks nothing in return. Because of its great economic importance, it makes good sense to protect the cow”

In theory, of course.

We’re a country of very high minded and noble intentions. Our actions completely contradict all that.

We sell reusable cloth bags every day of the week to customers all over the world from http://www.badlani.com/bags, but we have no customers in India.

Tragic, isn’t it?

http://www.mbdc.com has a totally inspiring concept on their website. This is what it says.

“MBDC is articulating and putting into practice a new design paradigm; what Time calls "a unified philosophy that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world."

Instead of designing cradle-to-grave products, dumped in landfills at the end of their 'life,' MBDC transforms industry by creating products for cradle-to-cradle cycles, whose materials are perpetually circulated in closed loops. Maintaining materials in closed loops maximizes material value without damaging ecosystems”.

We’re doing our modest bit on this front too. Scroll down to see the weblog titled “Turning junk into beauty while helping people” where we’ve attempted to precisely this.

What we’re doing, of course, is going to the grave and turning it into a cradle.

The whole story is at http://www.badlani.com/recycle

But we’re not at all sure on how to take it to its potential and looking for help and advice, so please do share your thoughts…