It’s part of the station’s larger Free 2 Be Green campaign, encouraging teens to think globally and act locally in the fight to conserve and improve the environment. If your parents and teachers can’t get you interested in some eco-activism, leave it to the Gossip Girls and the cast of 90210 to make it both fashionable and fun. Check out the contest for more details, but don’t wait! It ends on March 31, so get those entries in now.

Europeans use toilet paper with a greater proportion of recycled fiber. But for the true eco-warrior, there’s an even more environmentally friendly solution — reusable toilet wipes. Made of cloth, reusable wipes offer all the comfort of the triple-ply, ultra-quilted toilet paper roll with none of the nasty tree-killing consequences. Instead, there’s only the little matter of storing and washing dozens of waste-covered pieces of cloth. Every week. It’s a tough sell, but one manufacturer promises they don’t stink and sells wet bags to contain the dirty wipes.

What.

As admittedly eco-friendly as this idea is, how many people will likely go for it? (Outside of being held to it at gunpoint?) Here’s what Time had to say on the matter:

Eco Craziness: 5/5. The cloth wipes are even sold in “funky and fun” combinations. We’re willing to bet they’re funky, especially after a week in the wet bag. Fun? Not so much.

We agree. Scrap the reusable toilet paper and pick up a reusable bag — a whole lot easier, and a whole lot more sanitary. Check out the rest of the top ten right here!

Legislation to ban single use plastic bags has been passed by the State’s lower house and is currently being debated by the upper house.

The opposition is expected to oppose the legislation, but the Government is hoping to get the support of the minor parties to get it through.

If passed, plastic bags will be banned from January 1 but businesses will have until May to comply with the new rules.

A large business, staying a step ahead of legislation? Inconceivable! And yet, it’s true. Target is starting their phasing out of plastic bags a good month ahead of the curve. It’s something to be proud of, and I’m not the only one who thinks so:

Environment Minister Jay Weatherill said Target had shown the type of corporate leadership needed to help the environment.

“Here we see a fantastic corporate citizen, Target, stepping up to the plate and showing leadership,” he said.

“This really demonstrates that corporate criticised are deicing this is a good ting to do.

“It’s fantastic for the environment, it of course prevents all of those plastic bags ending up in our marine environment and blowing around our suburbs.”

You go, Target! But next time… want to take that initiative on the rest of the world as well?

• Fresh ‘n Easy introduces the 99-cent canvas bag. They’re opening up two new locations in San Diego, muy exciting! [MarketWatch]
• Meanwhile, two enterprising mothers are introducing an innovative reusable bag of their own. [Hebden Bridge Today]
• Becoming LEED-certified is a beautiful thing. Go Giant Eagle! [MarketWatch]
• Dallas does not care about disposable plastic bags. [Dallas News]
• News Item: plastic bags tend to end up in the ocean. [The Downey Patriot]
• Going green for the kids is as good a reason as any. [Tri-Town News]
• Sheryl Crow launches designer reusable bag at Whole Foods. [AHN]
• Polypropylene: stronger or less sustainable? Some thoughts on the controversy. [MyPlanetStuff]
• Need some free reusables? Look no further. [Mom is Broke]

Photo via Flickr!

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. While still offering filmy disposable plastic bags, they would come at a price of five cents to help discourage overuse. Now, however, it’s all about to change — it has been announced that IKEA is phasing out the disposables.

The company set a goal last year of slashing plastic bag use by 50
percent from 70 million bags to 35 million in 12 months. To do this,
the company sold the plastic bags for a nickel, as well as reusable
bags for 59 cents.

Ninety-two percent of customers eschewed the plastic bags, the
retailer said. Now the company will pull plastic bags completely from
its U.S. stores in October, just as it did in the United Kingdom in
June, and in Australia in December. The company donated the proceeds –
more than $300,000 — from the sale of the plastic bags to America
Forests to plant trees.

Pernille Spiers-Lopez, president of IKEA North America, touts the plastic bag project as a success, stating that it “truly demonstrates that our customers care deeply about our global home and that we can all work together to be sustainable and environmentally responsible.” It truly is. Perhaps more companies should take notes from IKEA’s playbook — and if that just so happens to involve serving tasty meatballs for while you shop, then so be it. It’s all in the name of good business and a happier world.

Photo via Flickr!

As long as we’re on the topic of comfort food, please allow me to take a day off from bag bans and plastic taxes to address the wonder that is the grilled cheese sandwich. Possibly one of the single greatest food inventions since sliced bread, it is as delicious as it is easy, and over the past day or so I’ve been seeing a ton of blogs pop up with a new invention that could revolutionize the world of hot sammich goodness as we know it: reusable bags… as cheese toasters?!

However sublime a toaster may be for its primary purpose, things turn foul when you insert two pieces of bread, then feed in some ham, cheddar cheese and crack an egg all over the top. These “Toastabags” (phonemologically Bostonian, apparently) are a novel solution: reusable bags to feed a sandwich into, which trap your sandwich’s gooey juices as it toasts.

Oh my god, yesss. The thought of cooking delicious cheesy sandwiches to my heart’s content without wasting water and soapy chemicals in the scrubbing of pots and pans is offset only by my concern about the carbon footprint of buying a new gadget. That said, I would be much more worried if the sandwich bags were cheap and disposable a la aluminum foil. These babies, on the other hand, claim to be in it for the long haul and I hope they prove correct. Hauling my groceries home in a reusable bag, and then cooking them in a mini reusable bag? Sounds like a lazy cook’s dream come true, and that dream is my dream. Bring on the cheddar.

• Seven artists give a new meaning to the word “recycling.” [WebUrbanist]
• Toronto wants you to design their reusable bags! [I Want - I Got]
• A harrowing personal account from the frontlines of the reusable bag war. [Cheesy Kitty]
• Get with the program, California! [Bamboo Geek]
• Reusable bags = Profit?!?! [The Happy Rock]
• The OC keeps on keepin’ on in the campaign against plastics. [OC Metblogs]
• Change may be in the bag in Lafayetteville. [Northwest AR News]
• Thoughts on grocery chains, farmers’ markets, and self-imposed double standards. [Tanker Tracks]
• Ann Arbor elementary school students say “yes!” to reusable bags. [Everything Michigan]
• Civil disobedience in the bag game brings unrest in Singapore. [The Electric]
• Mixed thoughts on plastic bag taxes in Hotlanta. [Atlanta Fifty Forward]
• Somebody loves their reusable bags. [Tree Hugging Family]

Starting this week, patrons of the Continental Shopping Plaza can bring in their own shopping bags to carry their purchases and be entered into a contest to win up to $1,000 in gift certificates to various plaza stores.

Roxanne Aiken, the shopping center’s property manager, says that the idea for the contest came to her whilst on a visit to eco-friendly Seattle:

“No one there expected a merchant to give them a bag,” Aiken said. “It’s like it was socially unacceptable to not have your own bag.” Aiken, associate broker for Wilson Property Services Inc., said she wanted to find a way to implement that kind of environmentally conscious attitude back home. “Merchants here at the plaza generally have been trying to think of ways to go green.”

As it is quite difficult to make something so widespread as accepting paper and plastic shopping bags suddenly socially unacceptable (that sort of collective social consciousness takes time), Aiken opted instead to try and make the alternative option fun and exciting: anyone who brings a reusable bag to the plaza can be entered into a biweekly drawing for a $50 gift certificate — and a stylish nylon tote bag to boot — and all names are further held for a $1000 gift certificate combo-pack grand prize drawing in November. But what about those hapless shoppers caught unawares and without a bag? Knowing that inclusion is a far better tool than exclusion, Aiken allotted a caveat to the contest rules — if you don’t come with a reusable bag, then at least come with two cans of non-perishable food for donation to the local food bank and you won’t be turned away.

And will bringing the food donations to the stores in a reusable bag increase your odds of winning? Probably not, but it can’t hurt to try. Now that’s incentive…