In China, plastic bag litter is know as white pollution. The country used about 3 billion plastic bags each year, which required 37 million barrels of crude oil to produce. In January 2008, China’s parliament prohibited shops from handing them out, with the threaten of a fine for those who didn’t comply. The result? 40 million fewer bags used or a reduction of 66 percent.

And this isn’t the only tactic that has worked. In 2002, Ireland put a 15p surcharge on plastic bags, which resulted in an impressive 90 percent reduction. This week, Northern Ireland’s environmental minister proposed a 15p tax on plastic bags to follow suit, and this month some stores will start a three-month trial charging 5p per plastic bag.

Now when will the U.S. jump on board?  Click here to read more

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 Daily Greenz #70

It’s that time of year again…the time for creating your list of New Year’s resolutions. Rather than dusting off the treadmill, make 2008 the year that you get a little greener. Saving the planet can be a lot more fun than vowing, yet again, to lose that extra holiday weight. We’ve made it easy for you by compiling a simple list of steps you can take to lighten your ecological footprint:

1. Reduce your trash by 50%. By composting your food and yard wastes, you can reduce the amount of

landfill used for organic trash. In fact, if everyone composted his or her food, we could cut back on 30% of our landfills. The Envirocycle Composter is a great buy for $140 at greenfeet.com. You’ll also want to pick up a couple of reusable shopping bags to cut down on plastic bags. With the U.S. alone tossing out 100 billion them every year, your decision to switch will do a world of good. We like Earthchic’s bags because they’re simply stylish and are made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. Pick one up for $30 at earthchic.com.

2. Reduce the amount of energy you use in the home by 20%. We always encourage to switch to compact fluorescent lights because they use a quarter of the energy of standard bulbs and last 10 ten times as long. The next important thing is to lower your water to 120 degrees, which can cut your carbon emissions by 400 pounds every year. Insulating your hot water heater and pipes will also help you save energy and money. You’ll also want to reduce water usage by switching to a low-flow shower head and running the dishwasher only when you have a full load.

3. Reduce your use of gasoline. Here’s one way you can tie in your green resolutions with your yearly goal to lose weight: walk more, drive less! If the office or store is too far, consider riding a bike, carpooling, or using public transportation at least once a week to reduce global warming. An astonishing 70% of all car trips are less than five miles, which is an ideal distance for a quick bike ride. If every person made the switch once a week, we could save 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline every year and reduce household expenses by $6,200. So take a break from road rage and get your green on.

4. Buy organic food locally. Not only is organic and locally grown produce much healthier for you, when you buy local you also reduce the amount of environmental damage that is wreaked through conventional agriculture and cut the need for food miles (that is, the distance that the food needs to travel before it can reach the shelves in your supermarket.) A staggering one-third of all household carbon emissions come from food miles, so help your health and the environment’s by finding the closest farmer’s market at localharvest.org.

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