United States bag reusing initiative develops energy

HOUSTON-- US plastics market agents on Tuesday introduced a new initiative to motivate recycling by printing a standard logo design and also message to consumers on each polyethylene (PE) bag.

The step comes amidst a wave of public opinion in the US and elsewhere versus the use of non reusable plastic bags.

One significant grocery retailer, Whole Foods, has actually currently announced it will stop distributing disposable bags by Planet Day, commemorated today.

Whole Foods, which is the globe's leading seller of organic and also natural foods with more than 270 shops in the United States and also England, declares the step is meant not to work out the "paper vs. plastic" debate, but rather to encourage recycling.

" We say 'recycle!' instead. When you don't recycle, we offer 100% recycled (and recyclable) paper bags," the company said on its website.

To resolve unfavorable consumer assumptions about plastic bags, a team of leading plastic bag producers, recyclers and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) have actually developed a group called the Progressive Bag Affiliates (PBA).

" The objective of the PBA is to collect the leaders of the plastic bag industry together with major recyclers to impact purposeful adjustment in plastic bag recycling," ACC plastics department taking care of supervisor Steve Russell said. " dtpmp unified recognition project, with a clear message printed on numerous bags across the nation, will be just one of the most extensively dispersed environmental messages ever before created."

API Firm, Hilex Poly, Inteplast and also Superbag Company, bag suppliers which with each other stand for over 90% of the domestic plastic bag manufacturing, will certainly all include the brand-new logo and message as a basic attribute on their bags.

Customers can anticipate to see the logo on bags throughout the country in the lots of locations where plastic bag reusing programmes are offered.

The PBA also announced a detailed at-store recycling toolkit made to make it easy for stores to recycle plastic bags. The toolkit uses bins and also signage for store entryways and exits, checkout signage and pins to raise awareness, and also municipal containers to be made use of at curbside.

An estimated 812m lbs (368,000 tonnes) of post-consumer film (consisting of plastic bags) was recovered in 2006, representing a 24% rise from 652.5 m pounds (296,000 tonnes) recovered in 2005, according to the PBA.