Eco-Friendly Reusable Shopping Bags

Become part of the solution today!

The statistics are disturbing: 99% of the 100 billion plastic shopping bags used in the US are never recycled, with a single bag taking up to 1,000 years to fully break down. Retailers spend a staggering $4 billion on bags each year – a huge waste of money that also poses a major threat to the environment, from creating pollution to endangering the lives of marine animals and wildlife. Our goal is to encourage people to ‘choose to reuse’ by providing functional, attractive, reusable bags that offer real benefits to retailers and consumers alike.  Plus Packaging Inc. offers a full line of grocery bags and wine totes are recyclable, reusable, resistant to corrosion, hypoallergenic, non-toxic, washable, and water-repellent. Completely lightweight yet extremely durable, a single Reusable bag can hold more than three plastic bags’ worth of groceries, saving money for retailers while offering added convenience for shoppers. Stores can also make additional profits by selling the Reusable bags to consumers, and increase brand awareness by customizing bags with their own colors and logo.

Major corporations like Toyota, Walmart, and BP are spending millions on making the environment a top priority – and with good reason. Whether it’s Al Gore showing us the impact of global warming, or rising gas prices pointing us to search for alternative energy sources, we’ve all become aware of the need to protect our natural resources. With Reusable bags, everyone from large grocery chains, to the neighborhood liquor store, to the everyday shopper, can make a real difference without investing a fortune – by simply reusing their shopping bags. Reusable bags have seen tremendous success with customers across the nation. Retailers are reporting excellent results, with consumers raving about the convenience, durability, and functionality of Reusable bags, and actively participating in store programs to reuse bags.

Other uses for Reusable Bags would be:

1. Tradeshow Promotional Give Aways

2. College Book Store Bags

3. Training Seminar Packet Bags

4. Take Out Food Bags

Pricing and Availability

Available today nationwide, Reusable bags are priced from $.99.  Merchants with no-cost consultations on promotional programs and branding to build customer adoption and loyalty, offers quick turnaround on customized orders of any size. Bag displays, rack and signs are available as well.

 For sales inquiries, call 800-535-9550 or visit us @ www.pluspackaging.com.

Environmental Fact & Factoids

• The U.S. uses 100 Billion plastic bags annually, which is the energy equivalent of 12 Million barrels of oil.
• Less than 1% of plastic bags are ever recycled.
• Each high quality reusable bag will eliminate hundreds to thousands of plastic bags over its lifetime
• Plastic Bags kill sea animals that mistake them for food or become entangled in them.
• It costs California taxpayers $20.5 Million to collect and landfill plastic bag waste each year. This does not include external costs, e.g. pollution, risk and threat to marine life, economic loss due to litter, etc.

Your questions Answered

• The petroleum in 14 plastic bags could drive a car a mile.

  Plastic bags, like all plastic products, are made from petroleum. Americans use over 380 billion bags every year, throwing away millions of barrels of oil.
  
  It takes .48 MJ to produce a bag. (MJ stands for megajoule, the amount of energy it takes to heat 3 liters of water to boiling. Three liters is enough to make 12 cups of coffee or tea.) That .48 MJ includes the petroleum that the plastic itself is made from, as well as the petroleum burned as energy in the manufacturing process to make the bag.
  
  An average car consumes 4.18 MJ in driving 1 km, or the equivalent of 7 plastic bags. Convert this to miles and you get the equivalent of 14 bags per mile driven. (source)

• What are plastic bags made of?

  All plastics-including plastic bags-are made from gas and petroleum by-products.

  The two most common types of plastic bags are HDPE (High Density Poly Ethylene) and LDPE (Low Density Poly Ethylene). The first, HDPE, are the kind typically found at grocery stores. The second, LDPE, are the thicker bags found in boutiques and up-scale stores.

  Both are manufactured from ethylene, a by-product of gas and oil refining. These fuels are heated to produce polymers, the long strings of molecules that form the basis for plastics. Ethylene is a non-renewable resource which emits greenhouse gases during its manufacturing processes.

  LDPE bags are less likely to end up as litter because they are denser (and thus less likely to blow away inadvertently). They are also less likely to become litter because most end up at home, as opposed to HDPE bags which are used in a wide variety of places where there may or may not be proper disposal facilities.

  HDPE recycling programs exist but are limited. Only 0.6% of plastic bags are recycled. There is currently no recycling program for LDPE bags.

• Why don't paper bags biodegrade in landfills?

  Modern landfills lack the oxygen and other conditions that would allow paper bags and other natural materials to biodegrade.

  Paper and other materials need oxygen to biodegrade. Sunlight and water also help speed up the break down of materials into organic particles again.

  Landfills pile waste upon waste, blocking air, light, and water. Trash becomes compacted by its own weight until it is a solid mass. The only liquid is not water but a toxic seep, contaminated by the inks on plastic bags as well as by other toxins.

  The truth is: nothing really biodegrades in a modern landfill.

  To biodegrade, materials have to be properly composted with a careful mixture of air, light, and water.

• How many bags are being used?

  No one really knows. Estimates for annual US usage range from 14 billion bags annually to over 300 billion bags. World wide estimates range in the trillions per year.

  • A study at UC Berkeley estimated 14 billion plastic bags per year.
  • The Wall Street Journal put the number at 100 billion a year in the US alone.
  • The EPA has estimated that if you count all bags, sacks, and wraps, the number may be as high as 380 billion.
  • Some world wide estimates place the number of plastic bags used annually at a trillion bags a year-that's about a million per minute!
  • But others say that 3-4 trillion plastic bags are produced each year.
  

  Why is it so hard to estimate the number of plastic bags used?

  Perhaps it is because no one wants you to know, and also perhaps because we ourselves don't want to think about it. Manufacturers don't want to be associated with the problems these bags cause. Stores and even consumers are embarrassed about their own bag usage. Yet, stores and consumers continue to use them daily.

  But now, there is an attractive and affordable alternative. Stores and consumers around the world have rejected the plastic bag, and now in the US, the movement toward reusable bags is growing daily.

• What kind of bag is best for the environment?

  Paper or plastic is the wrong question. In order to know what is best for the environment, we need to consider the impact of a bag's whole life cycle.

  The best bag is the one that has the lowest lifetime environmental impact combined with elements that will gain widespread consumer usage.

  Birth: Low emissions and energy usage during manufacture
  Life: Reusable and durable to reduce impact over a long and useful life
  Death: Recyclable or compostable when it is worn out
  Consumer benefits: attractive, affordable, clean, and easy to use.        Year after year, consumer after consumer, the bag that combines the lowest impact with the highest usability is the PP fiber bag. That is why we sell PP fiber bags.

• Who else is taking action against disposable bags?

  All over Europe, Australia, South Africa, Asia, and around the world, citizens, retailers, and governments are joining the movement for reusable bags. Now, American cities and states are taking on plastic bags, as well.

  Ireland took the lead in 2002 by declaring that "the day of the plastic bag is over." The government instituted a levy of €0.15 per bag (roughly equivalent to $0.20 per bag) resulting in a 90% reduction of plastic bags in one year.

  Australia initiated a voluntary program, urging retailers to carry reusable bags and exhorting citizens to buy them. In the first four years of this campaign, from 2002-2006, Australia reduced bag use by 45%, without a single tax penny collected.

  South Africa, Rwanda, and other Asian and Indian nations have banned some types of plastic bags. In some places, discarded bags by roadsides were so ubiquitous that they were mockingly referred to as "the national flower" or "the national flag."

  Hong Kong had one of the highest rates of bag use in the world: a whopping 4 bags a day per person! But recently, government and retailers joined forces to institute a "No Plastic Bag, Please" campaign, and bag use has dropped dramatically.

  New York has considered a tax on plastic bags to recoup the costs of disposal.

  Recently in Toronto (Canada) a city-wide tax on disposable bags was suggested, creating quite a reaction. The debate there continues.

• Where are our bags made?

  Our bags are made in China. We practice fair trade.

  We monitor our factory closely for human rights and labor rights. Our factory monitoring is done by the non-profit organization Verite, whose work in this field is award winning and recognized world wide. You can find out more about Verite at www.verite.org.

  We do not believe in solving one problem only to contribute to another problem elsewhere. We believe that we have global problems and that we must find global solutions. By engaging with other countries responsibly to ensure fairness, we can use globalization as a force for good.

  We promote sharing responsibility for people and the environment along the supply chain. From the factory, to the supplier, to the store, and ultimately to the consumer, each level must contribute a little and demand responsibility from the next level in the chain. The result is a truly sustainable economic model. We do our part. By asking where our bags are made and purchasing our bags, you are doing your part. Thanks!