Saving our planet; one bag at a time

The bad news about plastics continues

rajiv — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:27:39 +0000

Despite industry assurances that plastics aren’t really bad, frightening news continues to emerge from independent research. The latest news (in todays New York Times) is about BPA - bisphenol-A — a chemical used in many plastics and epoxy resins now found in baby bottles and liners for canned goods.

In animal testing it was discovered to break connections between brain cells, and if this happens in humans also (no real reason to believe it wouldn’t), no one would want his children subjected to a risk of that nature. Several US states and the US Congress are considering banning bisphenol-A.

All plastics, including plastic bags, leach out trace quantities of the chemicals they contain into stuff (including food) carried in them.

The best effort, however, would be the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act. It would require that children’s products are proved safe before they are sold, not — as with BPA — the other way around.

Stick to cotton or jute bags.

Savvy marketers will appreciate this trend

rajiv — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:59:52 +0000

The trend I’ve been observing tells me that while the first move to reusable bags instead of plastic bags takes place on a pure utility basis, it quickly morphs into a move towards fashion.

Savvy marketers may consider moving straight into the fashion zone saving themselves time and money in the process of making their environmental stand recognised.

This morning I am looking at a number of stories that comment on how the move away from plastic bags is quickly moving from utility to fashion.

I thought my wife Manini’s Africa Collection would be an appropriate illustration for the story.

This story by Allison Ross in the Palm Beach Post says “It started with grocery stores cutting back on plastic bags to be more eco-friendly.

Then came eco-chic, in the form of a reusable canvas shopping bag by designer Anya Hindmarch emblazoned with the words “I’m Not A Plastic Bag.” It’s now selling for more than $100 on eBay”.

She goes on to add “But for some shoppers, it’s more about fashion appeal than saving the earth.

When J.C. Penney launched its first reusable shopping bag at some stores last fall, the 79 cent brown totes didn’t catch on with consumers. But a $1.99 version of the bag released a couple weeks ago featuring an illustration of green grass has proven much more popular, spokesman Tim Lyons said.

And Nordstrom’s own “eco-chic reusable tote bag” for $21.95 looks more like a designer tote than a bag for the Birkenstock set. The silver linen bag zips into a compact carrying case and features a cityscape illustration along with the Nordstrom logo.”

This is the pattern I’ve been observing for a while now. Most stores will start with a cheap, utility bags but will push it upwards for better aesthetics, feel and overall appeal.

The move is not difficult to relate to. Women who are making the shift from plastic to reusable bags are quickly internalising the reusable bag into their accessory zone making it as much a tool of self-expression as something to carry your groceries home in.

Shopping bags go hi-fashion

rajiv — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:51:56 +0000

From a humble utility item just a while ago, the shopping bag is quickly transforming itself into as much of a fashion accessory as anything else you wear to express yourself.

Today, carrying a smartly designed shopping bag is a powerful statement for people to make, as it visibly sets them apart from the less aware and less proactive hoi-polloi.

Here read about designer shopping bags that are so pricey ($960) that the author says it would be a shame to use them for “less luxe than caviar or white truffles”.

More people are responding every day to the call to be more ecologically concerned and not use plastic bags when they go shopping.

European stores offer special fast check out counters for shoppers who bring their own bags.

This opens up opportunities for various people. Bag and nature related designers are turning out expensive totes and consumers are lapping them up!

If you are considering bags for a promotion, think quality rather than quantity. That way your logo will get proud and frequent exposure.

The politicization of green marketing

rajiv — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:32:47 +0000

I just read an article where the author is outraged by Wal-Mart dictating green parameters to their suppliers for the products they buy. I’ve reproduced the story below.

I imagine Wal-Mart’s reputation as a bully has some element of truth, but suppliers still queue up to do business with them. It’s a choice they make, even after all the horror stories they hear.

If Wal-Mart were to ask us to supply them bags, I would say no because we’re not interested in doing immense volumes at wafer thin margins. But then that’s me. Exercising a preference as every businessman has a right to do. While I prefer to make better quality products and offer superior service and customisation to even small buyers, it is perfectly legitimate for a company to want to do colossal volumes at tiny margins.

Wal-Mart shoppers come looking for the best prices and it is equally legitimate for Wal-Mart to negotiate to get the best prices they can.

The fact that they are combining their normal business practices with a greener perspective is wonderful. Read the story below and you might agree that the shape of a noodle is less important than the state of our planet.

My take is that what Wal-Mart is doing is good. Green consciousness in businesses often has to be thrust down some throats. Free markets are a valuable thing, but I wouldn’t call this anything else.

Saving Earth, one noodle at a time
Peter Foster, Financial Post Published: Friday, July 11, 2008

According to a story in this week’s Financial Post Business magazine, Lee Scott, CEO of retailing behemoth Wal-Mart, deemed the noodles in Hamburger Helper guilty of “unnecessary curliness,” so he browbeat their producer, General Mills, into straightening them out.

As with so much corporate lunacy these days, this vignette is rooted in the alleged need for corporations to take a conspicuous lead in forestalling catastrophic climate change. You see, curly noodles take up more space than straight noodles and thus require larger packages. So, due to Mr. Scott’s intervention, the Hamburger Helper box is now 20% smaller, with — according to General Mills — an annual saving equivalent to taking 500 trucks off the road.

One assumes that Mr. Scott’s crusade will now bring him into conflict more broadly with the pasta industry, whose products display a shameful array of shapes that require redundant packaging. He will no doubt be seeking the eradication of the spirals, bow ties and tubes of fusilli, farfalle and penne in favour of more compact spaghetti and tagliatelle. Otherwise we might be forced to conclude that Mr. Scott has something against consumers of Hamburger Helper, whom he seems to think can make do with utility pasta. When will he start editing alphabet soup?

I always regarded tales of Wal-Mart’s terrifying “power” as nonsensical, based on confusing economic heft with political clout. Now I’m not sure. For Wal-Mart to squeeze its suppliers in the name of customer value and profitability is sound business; to twist suppliers’ arms to save the planet drifts into dangerous politics, and potentially lousy economics.

In my Wednesday column, I noted that the otherwise delightful animated film Wall-E portrayed a world depopulated by crass materialism, of which the main pusher was a monolithic and environmentally feckless nightmare version of Wal-Mart named “Buy n Large.” The irony is that Wal-Mart is now determined to portray itself as greener than green.

Indeed, its new, Orwellian, motto is: “For the Greener Good.” And I do mean Orwellian, because Wal-Mart seems to want to play Big Brother to its suppliers.

Straightening out Hamburger Helper is just one example of the use of Wal-Mart’s green muscle (perhaps its new symbol should be The In-credible Hulk). Procter & Gamble, too, has apparently been pressured to produce only concentrated detergent,

The problem is that the Hamburger Helper intervention might burnish Wal-Mart’s CSR credentials, but it makes General Mills look stupid, and undermines the free market more generally.

The Hamburger Helper intervention might burnish Wal-Mart’s CSR credentials, but it makes General Mills look stupid, and undermines the free market more generally

General Mills was either inefficient in providing its Hamburger Helper in a form that consumers didn’t want, and which involved waste packaging, thus damaging its own profitability, or, if its consumers really did like their curly pasta, it has sacrificed them to environmental bullying.

I sent an e-mail to General Mills asking– among other things– about the role of Mr. Scott, why Hamburger Helper was curly in the first place and whether any market study had been done on how consumers felt about the shape shift. The company claimed that consumers were happy with the changes, and ignored the questions about Mr. Scott and the pasta’s shape. It also asserted that General Mills had been “focused on efficiency and minimizing our impact on the environment for decades.” But that’s the point. Economizing on packaging and raw materials is a critical aspect of any business, as is responding to, and anticipating, consumer wants.

Green marketing is hardly a new phenomenon. Almost twenty years ago, Dave Nichol, the marketing genius who spearheaded Loblaw’s President’s Choice brand, said, “I think in the future we’re going to look back at this point in time as the start of what is going to be the most important revolution in our society — the politicization of the consumption process.”

It was an astonishingly prescient choice of words, although what Mr. Nichol was in fact talking about was the power of consumers “to vote for the environment at the cash register.” Things have turned out somewhat differently, significantly due to climate change hysteria. Corporations now seem to imagine that it is their role to be out in front of consumers — indeed, that they should force consumers into the paths dictated by radical NGOs. They also pressure their suppliers as a means of taking the heat off themselves. This thrust is inevitably pushed farther by a growing army of environmental consultants and “licensers” who earn fat fees for nagging their clients, and/or providing them with a “Cloak of Green”

Corporations, by subscribing to vague sustainability, are unwittingly leaving themselves open to an almost infinite range of further demands and interference. Whether they realize it or not, they are subscribing to the blanket condemnation that markets do not work and that the whole capitalist system represents one giant “market failure” that requires fretting and tinkering at every level, from noodle shapes through carbon labeling to the calculation of “food miles.” That way lies madness, but that’s where we’re heading.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown looks at a Norquest Bag

rajiv — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:08:46 +0000

Every so often a pleasant surprise arrives in your mailbox.

This morning it was a friend and customer in England Simon Hawthorne sending us a picture of him showing one of our bags to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“He’s very supportive of the reusable bag campaign” wrote Simon “and with all that’s happening – Zimbabwe, petrol and food prices, the credit crunch, he was very kind to give us the time”.

Though just substituting reusable cloth bags for plastic bags happens slowly, it is, I am glad to note, happening steadily too.

Five years ago, when we were starting this business, I had an uphill task even discussing this subject with people. Folks would look at me as if I were some radical greenie who was pushing an irrelevant agenda (Plastic bags for heavens sake, the world’s got so many problems, that kind of thing) but now I’m happy to note that everyone around the world is acknowledging that this is one of the world’s bigger problems and one that is easy to solve.

Having said that, this is a cause that still needs champions. If you’d care to do something, do write to me. I’ll be more than happy to work out a program tailor made just for you. Rajiv at Badlani dot com.

Cotton bags can be babe-magnets. Women now prefer green.

rajiv — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:21:07 +0000

Green is the sexiest concept around. As you read this story about Ferraris and Porsches taking a back seat to greener cars, let me tell you an even easier way to make your point. Grab a cotton shopping bag!

WASHINGTON: Forget that Ferrari, put away the Porsche, and junk the Jag, if you are haring after that neighbourhood hottie. The rules of romance are changing where cars are concerned. Red and Black, the metaphoric ‘’babe-magnets'’ are out. Green is in.

A new survey in the US sponsored by the Department of Energy and General Motors shows 88 per cent of women saying they would prefer to talk to a man with a new fuel-efficient car than a new sports car.

In other words, something like a Toyota Prius is the new ‘’babemobile'’ and will get you places a Porsche or a Ferarri (Tendulkar and Sanjay Dutt own one) can’t.

As for the Hummer — Harbhajan Singh’s preferred choice — it’s a bummer when it comes to winning hearts.

The gas hog is now considered so vulgar, gauche, and anti-social that its makers General Motors are considering selling it or discontinuing it.

The survey, conducted more than a month ago, also found that 36 per cent of Americans on the fence about buying a hybrid would be pushed to seriously consider one if gas rose to $4.00 a gallon — where it has already reached in some places.

Rising fuel costs will be a factor when choosing a car for 73 per cent of car buyers. Some 80 per cent of car buyers said they would prefer to talk to a fuel-miser than a fuel-wastrel.

There’s also lots of interest in a reality show similar to ‘’Project Runway'’ about designing stylish fuel-efficient and emissions-free cars, with the nearly three quarters of survey respondents saying they’d tune in.

The survey comes at a time Americans are moaning from coast-to-coast about soaring gas prices, although the $ 4 per gallon they pay is among the cheapest among developed nations — about half of what most Europeans pay and less than what Indians pay, even after the recent hike.

All in all, the new mood sweeping the west puts a big question mark on why Tatas, a thoughtful, conservative company, chose this time to go after the Jaguar and Land Rover.

The survey, which had a limited sample of 500, had its doubters.

‘’The girls around here like guys with big trucks,'’ joked one respondent from California. ‘’After all, anyone who can afford the gas for it must be making a bank.”

Seriously, everyone prefers people who do the right thing. And being seen with a cotton shopping bag is as right as it gets!

From an advertising and promotional point of view and from a branding perspective, I’m sure you see the awesome potential of a simple cotton bag with your logo on it.

Talk to us. You’ll be pleasantly amazed to know how affordable they can be.

Green marketing, green collar jobs. The lexicon of our New Age

rajiv — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:11:42 +0000

Its World Environment Day today and an appropriate moment to acknowledge what is happening to awareness of environmental issues.

The last one year has seen a greater growth in awareness of environmental issues than ever before. Green marketing is now taken seriously by all but the most backward companies.

Even knowing this, because I read and write about the issues almost every week, I was pleasantly surprised by the term “Green collar jobs”. What a delightful concept!

Awareness is growing and more and more people are looking at the circumstances with a sense of helplessness and fear, because they perceive the problems to be so large that they themselves wonder what they, as individuals, can do about it.

Everyone wants to do his or her bit. So, people are really grateful when someone makes it possible for them to take a personal step towards helping to improve the environment.

That’s why our cotton or jute reusable bags are such a powerful Green Marketing tool. When you give away a reusable bag with your logo on it, you allow the consumer to feel good about himself when he uses it. That goodwill rubs of on your company in a very positive manner.

Want to plan a program that will earn you serious goodwill and admiration at a very nominal cost? Write to me at rajiv at Badlani dot com.

Burning plastic creates poisonous dioxins. Singapore should tax plastic bags and reduce usage feel citizens.

rajiv — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:41:05 +0000

Singapore, unquestionably one of Asia’s best governed states, is facing a dilemma over the disposal of plastic bags. Burning them for energy was considered a convenient solution for the land-scarce territory, but the dioxins generated are now an issue of debate.

One concerned citizen, Ms. Bhavani Prakash, wrote to the Straits Times that it is time Singapore addressed the problem at its very root and taxed plastic bags.

Read the Reuter’s story first and then Ms.Prakash’s letter that follows.

FEATURE-Trash and burn: Singapore’s waste problem, By Gillian Murdoch

SINGAPORE, May 22 (Reuters) - Creeping out of their condo after dark carrying illicit bags of garbage was not part of the life Sarah Moser and her husband envisioned for themselves before moving to tropical Singapore.

But with recycling in its infancy on the island, such nocturnal escapades have become normal for the two academics.

Each week they dodge watchful security guards, barking dogs and suspicious neighbours to carry rubbish they cannot recycle at home to recycling bins far down the road.

“We end up storing tons of stuff,” Sarah Moser said. “Paper and cardboard, plastics like milk, juice, takeaway containers.”

“Then we have to do a huge big binge trip, and we’re so embarrassed because the guards are watching us.”

This small act of rebellion illustrates the problem faced, on a much larger scale, by tiny Singapore: there’s nowhere to put the trash.

“It is very costly to get rid of our waste,” said Ong Chong Peng, general manger of the island’s only remaining landfill, which cost S$610 million ($447 million) to create on Pulau Semakau eight kilometres south of the mainland.

The landfill “island,” a 350-hectare feat of engineering reclaimed from the sea, opened the day after the last of five mainland landfills closed in 1999.

Every day it takes shipments of over 2,000 tonnes of ash — the charred remnants of 93 percent of Singapore’s rubbish, burnt at its four incinerators.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) predicts a new multimillion dollar incinerator will be needed every five to seven years, and a new landfill like Pulau Semakau every 25 to 30 years.

With nowhere to site another landfill, recycling, though not yet rolled out to the masses in condominiums or state Housing Development Board (HDB) skyscrapers, is no longer just nice to have, but a necessity, said Ong.

“Singaporeans have to practice the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) to extend the lifespan of Semakau as long as possible,” he said, “and also reduce the need to build new incineration plants.”

DIRTY MESS

Untroubled by the festering mounds of pungent tropical garbage that frequently pile up in its less-developed neighbours, clean, green and super-efficient Singapore’s unique rubbish headache stems from its small size and high population density.

Incinerators have met with public resistance in neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia, and have been banned in the Philippines because of perceived health risks.

But the plants are sacred cows in Singapore, which opened its first in 1979, little commented on or questioned.

“Singaporeans understand and accept that because land is scarce, incineration is one of the most cost effective ways of waste disposal, as it can reduce the volume of waste by up to 90 percent,” the NEA said in a statement.

Other proponents stress that the four waste-to-energy plants scattered in the south, centre and north, recover enough heat from the combustion process to generate power equal to lighting up the city three times over.

“Some people think that incineration is just merely a destruction method, but it’s not true,” said Poh Soon Hoong, General Manager of the S$900 million ($659 million) Tuas South Incineration Plant, Singapore’s largest, which burns up to 3,000 tonnes of trash a day.

“We actually generate power. The plants produce two to three percent of the total power generated in Singapore.”

For critics, however, Singapore’s set-up is a dirty mess.

“Waste incineration sounds like a pretty good idea if you don’t really look into it too deeply,” said Neil Tangri, of the international Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance (GAIA).

“It’s power, it gets rid of this problem we have… but it creates dioxins where none existed before. Dioxin is known to increase rates of cancer growth… An incinerator is a major contributor to a whole range of major health problems,” he said.

For Greenpeace Southeast Asia Director Von Hernandez, the plants fly in the face of the green goal of resource conservation.

“Incineration does not really make the waste disappear, it transforms the problem into a formidable pollution problem,” said Hernandez, who led the world’s first successful campaign to ban the technology in his native Philippines.

“If you look at this model, from harvesting resources to selling them, disposing of them, it’s a linear model. In fact we should be looking at circular models to bring back some of this stuff to nature, and conserve materials.”

“In a small country like Singapore, inevitably, their landfill space will run out and they will have to find other ways of dealing with the problem,” he said.

RECYCLING TO THE RESCUE?

With Semakau landfill expected to be full by 2040, even those who have worked for decades in Singapore’s incineration industry agree the old burn-and-bury approach is unsustainable.

“We cannot keep building incinerator plants,” said Poh. “It’s not really the solution.”

Like the NEA, he says Singaporeans must change their mindset. “We need to get people aware of the environmental impact of their actions.”

Convincing people to buy less in a country whose “national pastime” is shopping is a hard win, he said.

Instead, a wave of softly-softly initiatives are being deployed to enthuse, inspire, or slyly enforce compliance.

Recreational Sentosa Island pushes edu-tainment, with a troupe of trained macaque monkeys who perform daily recycling displays.

At supermarkets, shoppers are now asked to bring their own bags to reduce the likelihood of the thousands of plastic bags handed out each day ending up in incinerators.

Another stealthy project, which began in March, targets the cornerstone institution of Singapore life — the hawker centre.

Darting between tables to snatch up dirty plates at Chinatown’s Smith Street food court, the army of plate clearers are at another new frontline in the battle — food waste recycling.

Leftovers scraped into black sacks on the end of the cleaners’ trolleys are trucked to a start-up food waste recycling plant that hopes to save 800 tonnes of organic scraps a day from being sent to the incinerators.

Local company IUT Global feeds the scraps into a bacteria-filled digester which turns them into biogas energy and compost.

The plant’s capacity will make it Southeast Asia’s biggest bio-methanisation and renewable energy plant when fully operational, said Assistant Manager Leon Khew.

In the meantime, normalising the idea of recycling through legislation would help, he said.

“Right now in Singapore recycling is not legislated. In Europe, everyone separates organics, everyone recycles, it’s legislated.” (Reporting by Gillian Murdoch; Editing by Eddie Evans).

Meanwhile, a citizen of Singapore, Ms. Bhavani Prakash wrote to the Straits Times in Singapore that a plastic bag tax was required. Here’s what she wrote:

I REFER to Thursday’s article, ‘Britons will soon have to pay for plastic bags’. The problem with plastic bags is that they are perceived to be free, whereas in reality they impose real costs to the environment, in terms of consumption of scarce petroleum resources, as well as their disposal. And because of this perception, there is no real incentive for individuals to curb their consumption.

According to the Singapore Environment Council, Singapore uses about 2.5 billion plastic shopping bags every year, which amounts to about 2,500 bags per family per year. Singapore sends most of its waste to incinerators, which means that a lot of that plastic goes up in the air releasing harmful dioxins. The rest may end up in drains, public places, rivers and canals, nature trails, beaches, mangroves and even pose a threat to marine life.

As a consumer, I would like to see more alternatives to plastic bags. I like to carry a cloth bag and a trolley to the supermarket. I have to admit though that I do take a few plastic bags home from the supermarket from time to time, which are used to line my kitchen bins, so that the wet waste can go down the chute. I hope supermarkets will make available, at a cost to the consumer, vegetable source-based (as opposed to petroleum-based) biodegradable carrier bags/bin liners so even the need for those few plastic carrier bags is eliminated.

I also feel that Singapore can take more radical steps and go beyond the voluntary initiatives by supermarkets to reduce the use of plastic bags, such as the introduction of a tax on plastics, like Britain. We can look to the successes of other countries. Ireland introduced a tax on plastic bags in 2002 equivalent to about 47 Singapore cents. Within weeks, there was a drop in plastic bag use of over 90 per cent. Countries such as Taiwan, South Africa and Bangladesh have banned the use of plastic bags. Some African nations are seeking to ban plastic bags as they clog sewer systems and float in the ocean, endangering marine life. Australia wants to ban free plastic bags by the end of the year, though it is still working out how to do it.

Such a radical step may meet initial resistance, but I am sure enlightened Singaporeans will see the long-term benefits to the environment, and come up with ingenious ways to make their shopping trips, plastic bag-free.

Bhavani Prakash (Ms)

Students seek a ban on plastic bags

rajiv — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:40:27 +0000

I’ve always been convinced that kids are more honest and sincere than us cynical old timers who’ve accepted the world for what it is and are willing to let things be the way they are. Kids are bright eyed and innocent and haven’t yet got around to assuming that change is impossible. So, they try. And sometimes that’s all you need to do. Try.

Read this wonderful story by Francis Baker from The Fergus-Elora News.

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Students petition for ban on plastic bags By Francis Baker
May 20th, 2008

Protecting the environment is on the minds of local high school students.

Sarah Hennekens, a Grade 10 student in the environment group at Centre Wellington District High School, presented two petitions to township council on environmental issues last week.

The first, signed by 298 students, asks council to support expanding the Greenbelt into Erin, Puslinch and Guelph-Eramosa. The second, signed by 254 students, asks the township to ban plastic bags.

With only a short time to circulate the petitions, Hennekens got 20 per cent of the student body to sign — and she said with more time, she’s sure she would have got about 90 per cent participation.

“These voices are the future of the community,” she said. “I’d like to ask you to consider taking action.”

Only one municipality in Canada — a township in Manitoba with 700 people — has banned plastic bags, she said. Centre Wellington could lead the field by not waiting for the federal or provincial government to move.

“Plastic bags are a huge problem in this world, and Canada hasn’t done much about it,” she said. “Let’s not wait — let’s take action ourselves.”

There are 500 billion plastic bags in use around the world — about one million are used every minute, Hennekens said. Besides cluttering the planet for the next thousand years, they’re also filling up landfills and causing thousands of animal deaths each year, she said.

The Greenbelt petition calls on council to support expanding the Greenbelt as the only effective way to protect environmentally sensitive land in the area.

Ward 3 councillor Robert Foster thanked Hennekens for her presentation, saying it’s very refreshing to see young people interested in advocating for issues like this.

Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj said she would take the two petitions to Wellington County council, which is dealing with both issues. Because municipalities have to work together to look at expanding the Greenbelt, the county would be an ideal place for that petition, she said.

Ross-Zuj said the county’s solid waste services committee was meeting the next day — and she would present the plastic bag petition there. “These are two wonderful initiatives,” she said. “It’s great to see at the high school that you’re concerned about this.”

I wish I’d thought of that!

rajiv — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:40:41 +0000

Today I saw a press release announcing that a childrens’ book called “My Bag and Me” had won the iParenting Media Award. What a great idea. I wish I had thought of it first. But I didn’t and they did and I wish them great success with it.

Here’s the press release:

iParenting Media Awards announced “My Bag and Me” as a winner in the book category. “My Bag and Me” is a thoughtful book educating children on the topic of going green and ways to reduce waste on the earth. Grocery shopping bags are not only wasteful but unnecessary, especially when a special reusable bag is available. “My Bag and Me” comes with its very own reusable shopping bag for children to use when shopping with mom and dad. The book not only teaches, it provides the tools for children to do their own part to save the earth right off the bat.

The iParenting Media Awards Program was created to provide a credible and objective source. iParenting Media Awards is the only consumer awards program in this market segment and prides itself on providing the best parenting content available today.

“We are thrilled to be included as a winner in the iParenting Media Awards,” says Karen Farmer, Author. “‘My Bag and Me’ is the first book of its kind and really allows a child to take ownership of their actions and take action immediately with the reusable shopping bag.”

“My Bag and Me” is currently available at any major bookstore for $10.95. It is the perfect book to begin teaching baby and child about the importance of being kind to the earth. “My Bag and Me” is appropriate for ages 1+ and includes a reusable shopping bag that can be put to good use right away. For more information on “My Bag and Me” or any of Penton Kids Press’s other award-winning products, please visit www.pentonoverseas.com.

What a great idea. I wish I had thought of it first. But I didn’t and they did and I wish them great success with it.