Plastic Bags

It's BYOB at Murphy's Super-Rite on Sunday - that's bring your own bag. Members of the League of Women Voters of Medford, Medford Lakes and Evesham are bringing their own bags for a shopping expedition at the store to protest the use of plastic bags and commemorate Earth Day. "We want to draw attention to the use of the plastic bags, and we're hoping that we can stop the use of them," said Ethel Daum, a league member. "We are going to go with our own containers, like canvas tote bags or string bags.

At long last, people who care about the environment have something nice to say about those ubiquitous, fossil fuel-based, all-too-disposable plastic bags. Apparently, they make great eco-art. And great purses, placemats, floor mats, chair covers, you name it. Some years back, an ingenious soul -- no one is quite sure who -- figured out how to cut the bags into strips that could be fused into longer lengths or loops, which in turn could be linked the same way as a string of rubber bands.

Philly has bagged its bag ban. For now. City Council yesterday voted down a measure - two years in the making - that would have nixed carry-home plastic bags from major stores, allowing only paper, compostable plastic, and reusable bags. The 10-6 vote came after the environmental committee earlier this year withdrew a similar bill, which would have enacted a 25-cent fee on plastic bags. But the bill's supporters vowed that the battle of the bags is far from over and that they would work all the harder to, as Councilman James Kenney put it, "catch up with the world.

Dear Polly: To recycle the small plastic bags you use for fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, stuff them into a pop-up tissue box. Any time you need one, a bag is right at hand. Where you use celery to lend crispness, substitute the broccoli stems that you otherwise might throw away. Here's a quick way to ready eggs for scrambling. Break the eggs into a jar, add a little water or milk, salt and pepper, screw on a tight fitting lid and shake. So easy, even a child can do it. Salads will wilt less quickly on hot days if you chill the bowl and the utensils you plan to serve them with.

Milk's got a brand new bag. Dairies, no longer cowed by the carton industry, have lately been pouring some of their milk into see-through plastic bags for use in schools. The clear plastic bags of milk are floppy, squishy, clammy and cold - about four inches square, and a half-inch thick when they're lying on the table. One high school student said kids think they look "like breast implants. " Several fifth-graders said their buddies ("no, not me - never") have occasionally tried them out as "squirt guns and milk grenades, once or twice . . . in the beginning.

When friends and neighbors heard the Brady family needed materials for a special craft project, plastic grocery bags magically starting appearing on their doorstep. Once they had more than 60 bags on hand, Michelle Brady and daughter Cecily went to work, recycling the bags into a hooked rug that has become quite the conversation piece. "People who've seen the rug seem to think it's cool," says Michelle Brady, 41. "One family friend decided to make her own. " Brady came across the idea on the Internet while researching creative ways to reuse Christmas cards.

My friend, visiting from Denmark, was horrified. We were in a small grocery, and the clerk had packed everything into a plastic sack. " Whaaat ?!" Jan scolded as we left. "Of all people! Don't you have your own bag?" I'd forgotten it. Lame, but it happens from time to time. Denmark has a bag fee, and it has transformed Jan's behavior. He walks everywhere; tucking a reusable bag into his briefcase is as automatic as pocketing his keys. Here in the United States, we're still wrestling with the issue.

The bar-code scanner beeps. The groceries glide toward the bagger, not to mention a new eco-enemy: the bag itself. If it's made of plastic, all the worse. Plastic bags are handy, to be sure. They carry lunches, wet swimsuits and pet waste. Yet they last for centuries in landfills. Thrown away, they are often blown away, urban tumbleweeds that wind up draped in trees, plastered to fences, clogged in sewer drains. In the open sea, they kill turtles. So the ubiquitous "free" plastic grocery bag - that small, pale piece of processed petrol so flimsy that good baggers double up - is beginning to be targeted by lawmakers and others who want them restricted or banned.

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation Wednesday to adopt a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a major victory to clean-water advocates who sought to reduce the amount of trash clogging landfills, the region's waterways, and the ocean. Egged on by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and an array of environmental groups, the Los Angeles City Council voted, 13-1, to phase out plastic bags over the next year at an estimated 7,500 stores. Councilman Bernard Parks cast the lone no vote.

I was all set to save the planet. I had bought one of those reusable green shopping bags. Now all I had to do was remember to take it along when I went shopping. Once I did. I proudly marched up to the checkout line with my new shopping bag. There was a long line. I waited and waited to pay for my groceries. I was tired and preoccupied. Finally, when my turn came, the green bag in my hand had somehow slipped my mind. It did not reappear in my consciousness until I got home. I suddenly looked down and found myself with one plastic bag of groceries in one hand and one empty, lonesome, but environmentally correct reusable shopping bag in the other.

Three journalists slain in Mexico MEXICO CITY - Three men who had worked as news photographers were found slain and dumped in plastic bags in a canal in the eastern Mexico state of Veracruz on Thursday, less than a week after the killing in the same state of a reporter for an investigative newsmagazine, officials and colleagues said. Press advocates called for immediate government action to halt attacks that have killed at least seven current and former reporters and photographers in Veracruz over the last 18 months, most of them among the few journalists still working on crime-related stories in the state.

At long last, people who care about the environment have something nice to say about those ubiquitous, fossil fuel-based, all-too-disposable plastic bags. Apparently, they make great eco-art. And great purses, placemats, floor mats, chair covers, you name it. Some years back, an ingenious soul -- no one is quite sure who -- figured out how to cut the bags into strips that could be fused into longer lengths or loops, which in turn could be linked the same way as a string of rubber bands.

Seattle officials ban plastic bags SEATTLE - The Seattle City Council voted Monday to ban single-use plastic bags from groceries and other retail stores, joining a growing trend among cities that embrace green values. The ordinance, approved unanimously after months of discussion and debate, takes effect in July. It includes a provision to charge a nickel fee for the use of paper bags, to encourage people to bring their own bags when they shop. The ban is expected to reduce pollution, free up landfill space, and improve the environment.

My friend, visiting from Denmark, was horrified. We were in a small grocery, and the clerk had packed everything into a plastic sack. " Whaaat ?!" Jan scolded as we left. "Of all people! Don't you have your own bag?" I'd forgotten it. Lame, but it happens from time to time. Denmark has a bag fee, and it has transformed Jan's behavior. He walks everywhere; tucking a reusable bag into his briefcase is as automatic as pocketing his keys. Here in the United States, we're still wrestling with the issue.

Facebook postings led to an animal cruelty investigation that culminated with the arrest of a Salem County man on a weapons charge. The New Jersey SPCA said that what it considered to be "disturbing" postings on the site caused officials to execute a search warrant in Upper Pittsgrove Township on Tuesday night. Authorities arrested Ian Barlow. SPCA president Rick Yocum said the group rescued five cats and discovered between 15 and 20 dead cats, neatly wrapped in plastic bags, in the freezer.

Fresh herbs are at their most abundant and affordable during these waning days of summer. So, yes, use them with abandon. Chop and sprinkle on grilled fish, mince and rub on lamb, tuck whole sprigs in glasses of iced tea and lemonade. But the onset of autumn doesn't have to signal the end of herbal enjoyment. Now's the time to preserve your herbs for use later in roasts, stews, even cocktails. Herbs are extremely easy to "put by. " No sterilized jars and pots of hot water needed.

SANDY HOOK, N.J. - A bag of heroin, a 10-gallon gas tank, five pairs of underwear, a duck caller, and a plastic cow were among the nearly half-million pieces of trash picked up from New Jersey's beaches by volunteers last year. It may appear that everything but the kitchen sink turned up. But that would be wrong: There was one of those, too. Clean Ocean Action, an environmental group that has been doing beach sweeps for 25 years, said in a report released Tuesday that an all-time high of 475,321 pieces of litter was removed from the state's 127-mile shoreline last year.

Here's a look at some of the worst offenders that clog city streets with trash: Household trash: Phoebe Coles of Keep Philadelphia Beautiful says we're our own worst enemy: Untied or torn trash bags, trash cans stuffed with loose litter or trash set out too soon make the biggest mess. Cigarette butts: Millions of peoples still smoke and fewer cars have ashtrays, so . . . The solution is to quit smoking, but Coles said the city and private businesses need to install more cigarette receptacles.

Business was going so well for a marijuana-growing operation in a North Philadelphia warehouse that James Alberts and Richard K. Creamer decided in June 2009 to expand their business to northern California, authorities said. But their plan to purchase land there never happened because federal agents took down the operation the next month and arrested 10 people, all of whom have since pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and related offenses. A federal grand jury yesterday charged Creamer, Leo Alberts, and Derek Pitts in the conspiracy to grow and distribute 1,000 marijuana plants, and related offenses.

Emily Mendell is a freelance writer in Wallingford and cofounder of www.mothersofbrothers.com Having just completed my weekly grocery shopping in record time, I steer my large cartload of food toward the shortest checkout line. As I begin to stack my items on the conveyor belt, that all-too-familiar feeling of panic strikes: Once again I have forgotten my environmentally friendly shopping bags. They're at home in my laundry room - 15 of them in various colors and with trendy logos.