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formerly ecostudio.com.au

Our family uses compact shopping bags from reusablebags.com. We like this bag because it folds into its own little pouch and you can carry two or three in your purse or briefcase and pull one out if you happen to be in a store. The same company has larger shopping bags designed for groceries, but the small ones work well.

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian plastic industry is lashing out at growing movement to eliminate plastic shopping bags, saying that an outright ban could cause more environmental harm than good.

"I think, generally speaking, there was always a kind of anti-plastic sentiment out there, Serge Lavoie, president and CEO of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, said on Wednesday. "We're a high-profile target."

Earlier this week, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario -- the provincially owned chain of 598 stores -- announced it would phase out plastic bags as part of ongoing efforts to become more environmentally friendly, offering paper or reusable fabric bags instead.

The LCBO joins a growing list of retailers and municipalities across Canada -- as in other countries -- that are looking to cut down on or phase out plastic bags.

But the CPIA contends banning plastic bags will fail to change consumers' behavior and may actually lead to more waste plastic as people switch to alternatives.
After Ireland imposed a tax on plastic shopping bags in 2002, consumers switched to heavy-duty kitchen catchers bought off the shelf. The amount of plastic shopping bags handed out fell by 90 percent, but the net result was a 21 percent increase in plastic used, according to the Packaging and Industrial Films Association.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2928883020080529?

That so few people can use so much plastic says a lot about our wasteful habits.

A person's use of a plastic check-out bag can be counted in minutes - however long it takes to get groceries from the shops to their homes. These bags, however, can last for hundreds of years.

Combine the growing number of plastic bags used every year with the time it takes for them to break down and you have a major environmental problem.

Whether it's inadvertent or deliberate, plastic bag litter creates many problems. Bags get caught in fences and median strips. They end up blocking drains and trapping birds. When eaten they kill livestock.

At Bathurst's Mt Panorama race track, they even disable racing cars.

In the marine environment, plastic bag litter is lethal, killing thousands of whales, turtles and other sea life every year.

Planet Ark aims to show councils, retailers, communities and individuals how to reduce their use of plastic check-out bags.

Doing away with plastic bags is easier than you think. Planet Ark has worked with communities like Coles Bay, Kangaroo Valley, Huskisson, Oyster Bay and others to ban plastic check-out bags in all of their retail outlets. If these towns can live without plastic bags, then maybe yours can too.

Please join our campaign. This site will show you how.http://www.planetark.com/campaignspage.cfm/newsid/7/story.htm