{"id":1577,"date":"2005-09-02T16:19:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-02T16:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablog.greenoptions.com\/2005\/09\/02\/a-different-approach-to-plastic-grocery-bags\/"},"modified":"2005-09-02T16:19:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-02T16:19:00","slug":"a-different-approach-to-plastic-grocery-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/a-different-approach-to-plastic-grocery-bags\/","title":{"rendered":"A Different Approach to Plastic Grocery Bags"},"content":{"rendered":"
I’ve written about a number of different places around the world, from Ireland<\/a> to San Franscisco<\/a>, that have attempted to deal with litter and waste produced by plastic grocery bags with a “bag tax.” The state of Rhode Island, though, is taking a different approach<\/a> to dealing with the 192 million bags used by shoppers in that state every year:<\/p>\n Starting [today, September 2nd], Rhode Islanders who take the trouble to return used plastic shopping bags to their local grocery stores can rest assured they are making a solid contribution to the environment. Very solid.<\/p>\n The stores and the state are collaborating on what appears to be the first statewide program to collect plastic grocery bags and to recycle them – in this case at a very memorable destination.<\/p>\n To assure the bags are recycled usefully, the state has made arrangements to sell them to Trex Co<\/a>., a fast-growing, Virginia-based firm that combines recycled plastic and wood to make decking and railings sold across the country.<\/p>\n The campaign, dubbed ReStore, begins Friday, with brightly marked blue boxes installed at the front of 61 grocery stores throughout the state. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Apparently, the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation considered proposing a tax on the bags, but, according to executive director Sherry Mulhearn:<\/p>\n …the resource recovery commissioners believed it would be wrong to impose a tax without first giving Rhode Islanders an opportunity to try a more cooperative approach. And that meant having her agency work with local markets to initiate a program to collect plastic bags and find some way to get them reused.<\/p>\n “We are the recycling facility, so it was clear we should be doing this,” Mulhearn said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n As we’ve discussed in relation to other issues, taxes are often the first step taken by states and communities; it will be interesting to see if this novel approach by Rhode Island will prove more effective.<\/p>\n Technorati tags: plastic bags<\/a>, recycling<\/a>, Rhode Island<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve written about a number of different places around the world, from Ireland to San Franscisco, that have attempted to deal with litter and waste produced by plastic grocery bags [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n