What is happening with Plastic Bags?

I came accross this in the Dallas online paper.
The single-use plastic bag gives way to the recycled tote

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, May 9, 2010
McClatchy News Service
The single-use plastic bag could be an endangered shopping species.



TOBY TALBOT/The Associated Press
A shopper prepares to load plastic bags of groceries into her car in Montpelier, Vt. The state is proposing a 10-cent tax per plastic bag. The thin plastic bag with handles – known in the industry as the T-shirt bag – is under pressure from municipal bag bans and a growing number of retailers that are encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags.

A new industry has sprung up that's churning out reusable tote bags and is poised to profit from the passing of the traditional plastic bag.

Dan Sabbah, president of Global Design Concepts in New York, is one executive predicting that the days of the plastic bag are numbered.

"Plastic bags are quickly going the way of extinction," Sabbah said. His handbag and tote bag company has joined with a Canadian business to form a venture called Global Way to make tote bags from recycled water bottles.

In April, Global Way shipped hundreds of thousands of the bags to retailers including CVS and Walgreen's for reusable bag promotions tied to Earth Day observances.

"Retailers are getting ahead of this curve," Sabbah said. "I don't believe anyone thinks this is going to go away. This is going to be the wave of the future."

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has pledged to cut its plastic shopping bag waste by 33 percent, or 9 billion bags a year, by 2013. Ikea and Whole Foods Market Inc. stores banished plastic bags in 2008.

Target Corp. handed out 1.5 million reusable tote bags in honor of Earth Day in April and gives shoppers a 5-cent rebate every time they use one of their own bags instead of a new plastic one.

An organization that represents plastic bag makers argues, however, that the future of plastic bags will be one of rebirth and recycling.

"Reports of the death of the plastic bag are greatly exaggerated," said Shari Jackson, director of Progressive Bag Affiliates, an association representing the major U.S. makers of plastic bags and plastic bag recyclers.

"There's another side – the recycling side – that is just not being told, and it's growing," Jackson said. Progressive Bag Affiliates set an industry goal to achieve 40 percent recycled content in all bags made by its member companies by 2015.

In 2008, Jackson said, more than 832 million pounds of bags and other plastic films were recycled. The bags are being made into composite deck materials, fencing, shopping carts, containers and new bags, she said.

Surveys also show Americans reuse supermarket and department store bags for wastebasket liners and lunch bags, Jackson said. "They are heavily reused after they're used to carry groceries home," she said.

McClatchy News Service


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-p2plasticbags_09bus.ART.State.Edition1.3ddd1ea.html

Thats why at Envirothings we have reusable bags..think today enjoy tomorrow