Plastic bag manufacturers announce long range recycled content plan.

I was reading April 21st article in USA TODAY by Bruce Horovitz titled Plastic Bag makers get into recycling. In the article a quote from the Earth Day Network surprised me. Kathleen Rogers the President of Earth Day Network called the announcement annoying and transparent. She went on to say that the death knell has sounded for plastic bags and the manufacturers are just trying to continue to make a bad thing. Ouch!

These comments seem like politics as usual to this author. Our company is very focused on safety and environmental standard adherence in the supply chain. We well understand the waste created by non recyclable or disposable bags. We also understand that baby steps are necessary to progress. In this case the manufacturers are taking some. Is it enough? Probably not. If it is not enough, manufacturers will be forced sooner rather than later to do more. In the meantime, let?s applaud any movement and hold them accountable to at least what they are committing to. For those companies that want to do more, they can stop purchasing plastic bags and offer reusable bags at a reasonable cost. For consumers that care, they can stop using plastic bags in favor reusable bags.

In the present economy, for a company to offer to spend a significant amount of money to reengineer the products to the benefit of the environment is not such a bad thing.

As always, we look forward to and appreciate your comments.