Plastic bags are choking our Earth

Target Petition Urges Retailer To Ban Plastic Bags

Dear Target. Please ban plastic bags, or charge 25 cents per bag. Putting a cost on bags would make individuals value them, and hopefully reuse them, not just let them fly onto the streets and landscapes.

I get so tired of seeing plastic bags blowing on the street and fields, hanging from trees, left in bus shelters, and stuck in street gutters. These bags can last for hundreds of years, and then might only break into tiny pieces of plastic. They are made to last! It is time corporate America, Target and others, to step up and take leadership on our plastic problem. Also, each of us needs to take responsibility and always bring reusable bags shopping.

Retailers think they are doing enough by offering recycling of plastic bags. In fact only 5% of plastic bags are recycled, but according to my local recycler there isn’t much of a market for the recycling of plastic bags.

The best thing you can do is bring your own reusable bags!

health4earth — Bring your own reusable bags.

Some states and cities have banned single-use plastic. Read more here

Small Changes Can Make a Difference

Get rid of plastic bags — Make plastic bags history!

Three months ago two large grocery stores in Australia banned plastic bags. It has lead to an eighty percent reduction in plastic bag use in Australia. Read about it here.

In England retailers are reporting a 90% drop in plastic bag use after a bag fee was introduced in 2015.

Businesses can take leadership and help make enormous changes to help our Earth. Call on Target to help. Here is a petition you can sign to get Target to ban plastic bags. Petition to Target

We can all make a difference also! First you can always bring your reusable/washable bags with you shopping. Make bringing bags a habit. Next, lets get Target to take leadership and ban plastic bags in their stores. Sign the petition, but also ask them to ban plastic bags when you visit their stores. Petition to Target

July, Plastic Free July, is almost over, but it’s not too late to set goals to reduce your plastic use. Start now!

Target, Stop Single-use Plastic!

Recycling is important, but it just isn’t enough to solve our plastic problem. What is the solution? Last week I had this letter (below) published in the http://www.startribune.com/ in response to Target rolling out their new “green” products:

Earth-friendly line is insufficient; stop stocking single-use plastic

Plastic bottles, plastic bottles — Target must have missed the memo on how harmful single-use plastic is to our Earth (“Target rolls out earth-friendly household goods,” April 23). To be truly green, Target needs to offer consumers the ability to refill their own bottles with these new “green” products. Customers who care about all the plastic in our environment can now reuse and refill their bottles at Minnesota’s excellent food co-ops, or the new zero-waste Tare Market in Minneapolis where consumers can save money and help our environment at the same time. Many of these bulk products are even Minnesota-sourced. Let’s move to the paradigm of reusing instead of adding more single-use plastic to our landfills, and I’m encouraging Target to become the business leader in this reuse/refill movement. health4earth

Why isn’t recycling enough?

We should all be demanding a zero waste economy with fees and bans on plastic, but of course, the plastics industry is in control
See what happens to some of the material we recycle here

NO to Plastic Bags

This letter to the editor was printed in the Star Tribune on October 24, 2014

Are PLASTIC BAGS NEEDED?

Shop with your reusab;e bags — Shop with your reusable bags

Companies like Target ought to at least ask

After a full day on the University of Minnesota campus, I stopped by the new Target Express in Dinkytown. I bought four small items — and acquired two disposable plastic bags before I could even ask for none. This avoidable pollution and waste of resources has proved to be Target Corp.’s standard operating procedure and needs to change to match the company’s sustainable practices.

Several towns across the country have adopted legislation requiring customers to purchase a plastic bag for a nominal fee if they did not bring reusable bags. Locally, students are not likely to carry around a reusable shopping bag — unless, of course, you count the backpacks they carry everyday. A majority of the Dinkytown store’s customers are students looking for minimal items that could easily fit in a backpack.

I recommend you search the Internet for “plastic bag statistics.” You will be appalled.

If Target simply asks customers if they would like a bag, people will say no. Whether it is from conscience or simple logic, it is dollars and sense. Target could reduce its pollution and costs while appealing to anyone who advocates sustainability.

Kevin O’Brien, Minneapolis

https://health4earth.com/2013/02/24/refuse-plastic/