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02Oct

IKEA Goes From Tax to Ban

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Maybe it’s just personal bias based on their stylish furniture and tasty meatballs, but IKEA has always seemed to have a singular sense of practical-yet-extraordinary innovation. Example #1: my ridiculous indispensable Kitchen-in-a-Box set, awesome! Example #2: over a year ago (before it was popular!) IKEA was among the first companies to start advocating reusable bags. […]

26Sep

Friday Link Round-Up: 09/26/08

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Wal-Mart: not as keen on waste as you might have believed. [Reuters Business and Finance]
A young man tries to find the words to describe his inner struggle with eco-consciousness. [The Lariat Online]
And then, along came the snarky rebuttal! [Mission Laughter]
The plastics industry continues to cry foul. [The Nor’wester]
Composting: the D’Artagnan to the “Three Rs” Musketeers? […]

16Sep

Sometimes Seattle Gets Stalled… Again

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Alas, Seattle! They just want to get some anti-pollution initiatives passed, but it seems like new obstacles keep cropping up at every turn. Today’s particular obstacle is a big one, too: enough signatures have been collected to bring an injunction against the plastic bag tariff that was supposed to begin in January.
More than enough […]

12Sep

Friday Link Round-Up: 09/12/08

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The rest of San Diego County may soon be following in Encinitas’ footsteps. [Sign On San Diego]
Meanwhile, Gonzaga is following in the footsteps of all universities going green. [Gonzaga Bulletin]
Concluding the Telluride/Aspen Plastic Bag Reduction Challenge: Telluride 1, Aspen 0. [Telluride Watch]
North Carolina communities are making a heartfelt effort at replacing plastic bags. [The Appalachian]
…and […]

03Sep

Exaggerating Claims Helps No One

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When editors and columnists railing in favor of disposable plastic bags use fallacious arguments and flimsy attacks, it makes them look like fools. Unfortunately, this fact can go both ways and a couple of Los Angeles officials now stand as an example of what not to do.
In their Aug. 15 Blowback, L.A. County Supervisors Yvonne […]

26Aug

Riverside County Enjoys a Good False Dichotomy (Also, Boats)

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FALSE DICHOTOMY (n.) — A fallacy committed when the arguer claims that his conclusion is one of only two options, when in fact there are other possibilities. The arguer then goes on to show that the ‘only other option’ is clearly outrageous, and so his preferred conclusion must be embraced.
In contrast to yesterday’s update, some […]

18Aug

Plastic Bag Fee Bill AB 2058: YOU Can Help!

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California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine’s Assembly Bill AB 2058 — a bill that, if passed, would demand a 25-cent environment-supporting tariff for each and every disposable plastic bag handed out at grocery stores — has been kicking around for months now, but unfortunately it seems to have stalled somewhere along the committee decision line. Corporations and […]

31Jul

Look Into the Eyes of the Enemy

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No, I jest. That would be rude. But seriously, homeboy here does have some issues.
This gentleman is Stephen L. Joseph, head of the controversial Save the Plastic Bag campaign and the focus of a recent article in Time Magazine. An attorney with a history behind him of fighting graffiti and litter and waging all-out […]

29Jul

Congratulations, Seattle!

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I reported a couple of weeks ago on Seattle’s interest in a disposable bag tariff, and now The battle for the city’s fate is over: yesterday a plastic 20-cent bag tax proposal finally came before Seattle’s City Council as a vote, and it almost-unanimously passed.
Seattle is taking a different approach to the “paper or plastic” […]

24Jul

The Bag Ban Comes Home (Again)

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Sweet home San Diego is an interesting place — never before have I lived in a place so equally split between raging conservatives and diehard beachy nature people. Most times, this dichotomy lays dormant as each party chooses to ignore the other, but from every now and then something happens to bring the underlying resentment […]