Anyone who cares about the environment would agree that the smallest actions can affect enormous changes. Consider what would happen if everyone on the planet began making every decision based on environmental impact. There’s little doubt the future would be brighter. As it is, people can make numerous changes that have an impact, from using eco-friendly reusable shopping bags to changing how you think about fast food. Here are simple eco-friendly solutions to challenges we face on a daily...

As plastic bag bans go into effect across the country, people have no choice but to remember to bring reusable bags with them when they leave the house. But what if you are used to getting plastic bags in the store? In fact, the switch to green grocery bags is easier than you think. There are three simple ways to guarantee you won’t leave home without them.

• Keep them in the car. Eco-friendly reusable shopping bags are going to help the environment in a number of ways. However, they only work...

Somewhere, at a domestic or foreign factory, a company is producing plastic bags for grocery stores and countless other businesses. Consumers use them to pack goods, which then make it to homes. From there, they are often thrown straight into the trash. Wherever they end up, they will be in the environment for thousands of years, polluting the oceans and killing off plant and animals by poisoning them with chemicals.

The journey of a plastic bag is a very unsettling story and it doesn’t have...

Whether you’re a business owner looking for a solution to plastic bags or a concerned citizen hoping to help the planet, reusable shopping bags are the easiest solution to implement. Once you start adding up the number of bags you can save from entering landfills, the decision is easy. These five benefits of reusable shopping bags are their biggest endorsement.

1. They stop the landfill pileup. Where does our trash go after it is put on the curb? In most cases, it goes to a landfill, a part of...

In 2011, residents of Brownville, Texas were finally free to celebrate their banning of plastic bags. South Padre Island, a coastal area in Texas, has also been enjoying over two years of eco-friendly reusable shopping bags taking over their municipality. What then could a local lawmaker possibly hope to achieve in advocating the overturn of plastic bag bans statewide? While a multitude of theories abound, local residents have begun taking action by informing Rep. Drew Springer of...

Recently, Austin passed and is successfully enforcing a plastic bag ban. In neighboring New Mexico, the capital of Santa Fe is considering making reusable tote bags for shopping the new normal, among other environmental efforts. While Austin is one of the leading cities in the U.S. environmental movement, Santa Fe also sees an opportunity to bring in reusable bags as the beginning of a smarter trash policy, especially considering the amount of trash regularly brought to the city’s landfills....

This April 22, 2013 is Earth Day, an annual milestone that puts the spotlight on the environmental movement. It might sound strange that it takes a movement to be concerned about the planet on which we live, but indeed the earth is often the last thing considered when human beings make decisions. This Earth Day, it’s a great time to start living the green life. It doesn’t take a gigantic commitment. All it takes is little things, like using reusable grocery bags , rejecting plastic containers...

Austin, Texas’s state capital began its plastic bag ban on March 1, 2013 and is receiving mixed reviews. The most notable city outside of California to institute a ban on bags that do not biodegrade, Austin’s leadership is impressive for a variety of reasons. For instance, reusable grocery bags are being given away at stores across the city, making it easy for shoppers to comply with the new law while they forget there is no longer a plastic bag option. Yet some Texans in and around Austin...

Over the past decades, the struggle to advance environmental causes encountered heavy resistance. Oil companies belittled the benefits of fuel-efficient vehicles; manufacturers mocked the reasoning behind conserving forestry; and the public was led to believe environmentalists were head-in-the-clouds dreamers. These days, the debate has largely ended. Few can deny the harm we have inflicted on the planet. The time has come for change, which makes efforts like reusable wholesale shopping bags...

Business owners hoping to end the use of plastic bags in their community often stress over how to begin. Do you start giving away promotional reusable shopping bags or try selling totes at cost? Should you come up with a catchy phrase to go with your company logo or say it all with visuals? In reality, the hardest part is taking the leap and making the order for your bags. The rest will take care of itself. The best reusable grocery bags have simple designs, clear layouts and leave no mystery...