It won’t surprise many that San Francisco is leading the way when it comes to eco-friendly initiatives. Already a pioneer with a plastic bag ban among city retailers, San Francisco is expanding the program to include restaurants as well. Compostable bags are now the only items that may be used when taking leftovers or takeout from a restaurant, and in addition, there will be a charge for these bags. San Francisco is steamrolling toward an ambitious goal of zero waste by 2020. Ensuring your...

When word came out about the plastic bag ban in Aspen, Colorado, the price the city placed on paper bag substitutes was striking. Aspen officials instituted a charge of 20 cents on paper bags to encourage shoppers to use eco-friendly reusable shopping bags instead. In many ways, that strategy has worked. Now, when shoppers don’t remember their bags, they have to pay the price. The city has already collected over $44,000 since the law’s implementation in mid-2012, money that helps the cause....

While communities all across the Southwest and Pacific Northwest are banning plastic bags, California has the highest number of cities that are doing away with single-use sacks. The latest is Redwood City, which joins East Palo Alto in San Mateo County in charging 10 cents per bag starting on October 2. Already, wholesale shopping bags are making its way up in Northern California. The first rollout of the law is the less stringent version for residents. By January, the ten cents becomes a...

Now that nearly 80 cities in California have taken action on plastic bags, news of an impending ban in San Diego is not surprising. Blessed with some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, San Diego residents have been finding these bags blowing down the coast, washing into the waters, and polluting every area of the city. Eco-friendly reusable shopping bags would eliminate the need for this waste, and San Diego’s City Council is going to draw up legislation to ban plastic bags for good. News...

There are so many ways to live a greener lifestyle, from bringing reusable bags to the grocery store to changing showerheads in the bathroom. In fact, as everyone becomes wild about electric vehicles, it’s interesting to note you don’t have to swap out a gas engine car for a Nissan Leaf or Tesla to use less fuel. The same as toting eco-friendly reusable shopping bags to the store, some small adjustments in the way you drive can have a big impact on your car’s emissions.

Here are a few ways...

In what’s become a bona fide wave sweeping across the country, Santa Fe became the latest city to ban plastic bags. The decision means one more state capital is heading toward a greener future, and initiating an era in which eco-friendly reusable shopping bags will be the norm. Along with Austin, the capital of Texas, Santa Fe is deciding to lead on the issue as the state capital of New Mexico. As with every such ban on wasteful plastic bags, the opposition has remarked how reusable bags take...

Great news about plastic bag bans has been coming from the West Coast for years, but the Big Apple is finally getting its moment in the spotlight: a bill to reduce plastic bags is now making the rounds in New York’s City Council. In many ways, it would be the most dramatic moment yet for the national environmental effort. Getting New Yorkers to use eco-friendly reusable shopping bags would save billions of plastic bags from landfills, seas, parks, and streets. The bill would charge 10 cents...

[caption id="attachment_342" align="alignleft" width="195" caption="Get reusable grocery bags from Holdenbags.com"][/caption] Get out your eco-friendly reusable shopping bags , as another city in Texas is nixing the plastic. Bag bans are no longer a bizarre phenomenon, as places from Austin to San Francisco have successfully adopted measures that change the way people carry groceries and supplies home. Kermit, Texas, is the most recent place to adopt a ban, as the city council decided in late...

[caption id="attachment_335" align="alignleft" width="195" caption="Get Customized Shopping Bags from Holdenbags.com"][/caption] For those who have been alarmed by plastic waste and pollution, it’s a great day in West Hollywood. Tuesday, August 20 marks the second phase of the West Hollywood plastic bag ban, affecting every retail business in the city. Eco-friendly reusable shopping bags will now be a way of life for West Hollywood residents every day of the week. It’s a huge victory for...

[caption id="attachment_324" align="alignleft" width="195" caption="Custom Shopping Bags from Holdenbags.com"][/caption] Plastic bag bans are hitting cities across the country, but opponents to this trend are confusing the debate on at least one count. When a plastic bag tax or outright ban is proposed, opponents deliver statistics on the damning effects of paper bags, their assumed replacement. Paper bags are not the solution. Environmentally friendly grocery bags are the superior third...