If You Are Still Not Convinced...

We have exciting news!!!

We, the Recyclers have exciting news! As you know, we have been trying to get a grocery store to start our borrow-a-bag program, where shoppers can borrow a reusable bag or give any extra reusable bags they don't need. Sunflower Market was excited and happy to agree to this. We will be filling up the box initially with 50 reusable bags for people to borrow if they forget their own. Hopefully, shoppers will be able to return the bags and donate a couple of bags themselves on their next shopping trip. Hooray, for Sunflower Market!!!!!!

YOU can make a DIFFERENCE!

Reusable Bag Fashion Show

Have you been inspired?

We would like to thank you all for visiting our blog, leaving comments, and helping us spread our message on plastic bags. 100 billion bags of plastic can be reduced! All it takes is a decision to stop using them. Little by little we can all make a difference. We hope we have inspired you to take action and make this change. Please let us know and leave a comment.

Thank you,
The Recyclers

Lexus Eco Challenge ONE (Land)

The Bag Who Cared

The Bag Who Cared

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Creative Writing plastic bags

The Who Bag C. Keime & The Recyclers Illustrated by Jessie Christensen 

LaBolsaqueleimporto

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Short Stories Creative Writing

Incentives

Did you know that many grocery stores in the United States already offer incentives for you to remember your reusable bags? Here's what some stores in Arizona are doing....

Frys: Offers $.05 off for every reusable
bag you use instead of plastic.

Trader Joes: Has a weekly drawing you can enter
to win a $25 gift card when you bring your
reusable bags

IKEA: Charges $.05 per plastic bag.

Whole Foods: Will be banning plastic bags all together.


What about the stores where you live? What other stores can we add to our list? We wrote letters to all the major grocery stores asking them to provide stronger incentives to help reduce the use of plastic. We'll see what happens, but hopefully this list will get larger.

Reusable bags are only good if you always use them!

There is an article written in the Wall Street Journal called, "An Inconvenient Bag," that I thought was interesting. Before reading this article, I had thought reusable bags only had upsides to them because I assumed they were all made out of recycled materials. Come to find out there are many downsides or cons to reusable bags that this article pointed out. For example, did you know thousands of reusable bags are being made and even given away because they have become the most popular new marketing tool? These bags are made with even heavier materials than plastic bags and so are likely to sit in landfills even longer. Plus did you know many of these are made in China and then shipped thousands of miles away. People who take or buy these bags but do not choose to use them are creating an even bigger problem for our environment. How many of us sometimes forget to bring our reusable bag and so buy more reusable bags than we actually need?

We thought of a solution to this problem that involves stores. Stores could allow for a bin or box to be placed near the registers for the community to donate their extra reusable bags. This way customers who have forgotten theirs, may borrow one. We figure people who care will want this to succeed and remember to return the bags at a later time and even donate more. So far we have tried to test this idea with Basha's but we were rejected because they didn't want to lose sales from their own reusable bags. We will keep trying, but what do you think of this idea? Please comment below.

Kendric K.

How Big is just One Billion?

A billion is a hard number to really understand because it represents a very huge amount. To help put it in perspective, here are some things to think about:

1. It takes about 30 years just to count to one billion.
2. One billion minutes ago, the Roman empire was flourishing.
3. One billion centimeters is about the distance from Chicago to Tokyo.
4. One billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the stone age.
5. One billion months ago, dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Now this is just one billion, can you imagine 100 billion?

(I found this info on mathforum.org and wikipedia.org)

Dwight W.

Make Your Own Reusable Bags at Home

Top 10 tips to Remember Your Reusable Bags

by the Recyclers

1. Unload bags with groceries and immediately return the bags to car.
2. Before walking into a store, double check you have your bags.
Go back and get them if you don't.
3. Keep a fold-up bag in your purse.
4. Hang bags on the door knob or hook near door.
5. Put keys in a bag so you can't leave without it.
6. Put them next to your purse, coupons, or whatever you take to the grocery store
7. Bicyclers, attach bags to your bike.
8. Keep bags in your work office
9. Keep extras in the trunk of your car
10. Keep a note on top of your grocery list

What are your tips on remembering your reusable bags?

Introduction

We are a team of five students at Connolly Middle School called The Recyclers that are among the 48 schools nationwide that have qualified to participate in the Final Challenge of the Lexus Eco Challenge, a national contest that encourages middle and high school students to develop and implement environmental programs that positively impact their communities. Our team was awarded $10,000 for our entry in the Land Challenge earlier this academic year, and now, as a participant in the Final Challenge, we’ve been asked to take our environmental message to as wide an audience as possible.


Our message:

One hundred billion bags of plastic are used annually every year in the United States alone, according to the Wall Street Journal. These bags cause many problems. Landfills around the world are being filled up with this product. They are a huge source of litter, getting caught in trees and fences. Plastic bags are made from petroleum, which is a nonrenewable resource that causes pollution in the production process. Also, plastic bags don't break down well. They are harmful to many animals that become entangled in them or mistake them for food. Dozens of young children also die of suffocation from plastic bags every year. Do we really want to keep using one hundred billion bags each year because they are momentarily convenient?