Receiving reusable bio bags is straightforward, and so is using them. Largely, they’re wonderful to have around, but there are a few concerns that you’ll have to take into account. One of those is health.

If you’re reusing bags, you’re inserting belongings into them, taking them out, and inserting new things in the next time. The microorganisms from one using can hang around until the next using, which sometimes can put many people at risk. In other words, if you use the bag to carry uncooked meat home, and then use it on your subsequent shopping trip to carry produce home, you could contaminate that produce accidentally.

You don’t need that kind of incident to happen, obviously, so bags should be cleaned regularly. It is also a good idea to have separate bags which you use for specific things, in order that the chance of cross-contamination is narrowed. It may be a bit less convenient remembering what bag is for what sorts of items and ensuring that your groceries get packed appropriately in resuable shopping bags, however food poisoning would be even more bothersome. Don’t take that chance when you can easily evade it. It is possible to label the bags for which you use, or get them in several colors – green for produce, red for meat, etc. Utilize whatever color grouping or other system that works for you.

There are several pros to reusable green bags. As long as you’re vigilant with the sanitation of them, use them for a long time without needing to buy more. You will be keeping disposable bags out of the landfills, and you’ll be saving your grocery store money, also, which can help keep costs down. That’s excellent news for you, and for everybody else who shops there. Plastic bags are a serious expenditure for stores that use them, since they go through so many each and every day. At the time when fewer of them are used, everyone wins – including Mother Earth.

Recent experiments conducted on bags by independent laboratories at the Publix University of South Florida showed some of the go green reusable bags or green tote bags had lead levels of 194 parts per million. Though this is below the government stipulation of 300 parts per million for most products, it exceeds the stipulated level for children’s products, which is only 100 parts per million.

Tests conducted within one other marketing area for Wegmans grocery stores in five states across the East coast showed concerning quantities of 799 parts per million, substantially higher than the previously mentioned stipulation of 300 parts per million. These bags were removed from the outlets and are no longer being sold. After these results were revealed, more companies surveyed their bags, grocery bagswith many containing less lead, while others exceeded satisfactory amounts.

These results cause shoppers to be concerned, should they or shouldn’t they use the bags? According to experts, the harm is not caused by the |grocery bags reusable properties at the food market, but derives from what transpires when these items are ultimately discarded. At that point, the lead runs the risk of polluting the ground. Since the lead in the bag isn’t the type that can leach easily into food, they still constitute a more suitable option than the plastic bags which most people discard and which clutter landfills.

According to a recent report from WUSF http://www.wusf.usf.edu/news/2010/12/16/sinkhole_under_landfill_is_growing), the radio station for the University of South Florida, it appears that a sinkhole is opening in beneath a landfill that serves Hillsborough County about 20 miles away from Tampa, Florida. While the authorities continue to try and figure out what to do about this problem, it looks like a terrifying one, to say the least. Official measurements say the sinkhole is as deep as a 4 story building is tall. Literal tons of garbage from Tampa Bay area households has already fallen into the hole.

What is a major cause for concern is the fact that leachate could very well begin to leak down into the local water supplies. Leachate is a substance that is a fluid containing unwanted chemical elements, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leachate). This type of toxic fluid seeping into the area’s wells is definitely bad news for the drinking water in this part of the Tampa area, but it is also a potential signal of a larger scale problem.

Tampa, Florida is certainly not the only soft soil area in the world where all the tons of human compiled garbage could fall through the earth and directly into the water supply. While solid waste is usually thought of as easier to manage than some other types of human produced pollution, once it begins to break down into leachate, the situation changes. Items like detergent containers and typical plastic shopping bags contain petroleum based chemicals we do not want in our drinking water.

While it is definitely difficult to singlehandedly take on the impact of an entire landfill, these waste disposal areas are all comprised of garbage from many people. That means each of us plays a role in how quickly they are filled. Such choices as using recycled shopping bags instead of typical plastic bags may seem small, but when you consider the way things add up, it has a huge impact. When we choose to recycle by using green shopping bags instead of opting for traditional bags, we are putting a foot forward for a cleaner world.

So while a sinkhole may not open in the Earth beneath a landfill near you any time soon, rest assured that if we take no action similar events are likely to continue happening worldwide. This is why it is not just Florida facing this problem – we all play a role in making daily decisions that impact the planet.

One of the easiest things any company can do to help reduce waste that is such a big problem today is to recycle. While we all know this, some companies continue to throw away a great deal of paper and cardboard that could quite easily be reused through a local recycling program. In addition, many continue to use paper documents where electronic versions would work just as well, especially given the ability to create redundant failsafe copies in today’s digital environment. Saving documents to the cloud can reduce waste right away and prevent their destruction by fire or other disasters, too.

In addition to waste reduction, conserving energy is another popular way that companies can begin to cut down on their carbon footprint. A recent report on the Bloomberg news wire (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-16/u-s-selects-solar-power-zones-to-streamline-project-approval-process.html) shows that even the United States government is getting heavily involved in the production of energy via solar panels. This is something any company could do, and paired with solutions like more efficient use of water and other resources, a big impact can be made by even a small company over time.

Of course, sometimes paper is a necessary thing because items like thank you cards and business cards really can not be as authentic if only in digital form. That’s why seed paper is such a strong idea. This is a type of paper that Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_paper) notes is capable of degrading into the soil in such a way that flowers can grow from it once it is discarded. Such seed cards can be used for stationary, business cards and a variety of other uses.

In addition, not all companies want to use styrofoam for their drinking cups at work. Some get custom mugs which can be reused, but others are choosing stainless steel water bottles to get the job done. Employees appreciate durable drinking containers and feel good about not creating so much waste.

The ideas you can use to improve your company’s carbon profile do not stop here. Creativity is proving to be the key to transforming our waste production, pollution and energy inefficiency. This is a brand new era of innovation and all of us can do a little something of our own to take part. Companies, too, can step up and lead the way to a cleaner, more efficient world.

Getting recycled grocery bags is easy, and so is using them. Overall, they’re great to have around, but there are some issues that you’ll need to consider. One of those is health. If you’re reusing bags, you’re putting things into them, taking them out, and putting other things in the next time. The germs from one using can hang around until the next using, which can put some people at risk. In other words, if you use the bag to carry uncooked meat home, and then use it on your next shopping trip to carry produce home, you could contaminate that produce accidentally.

You don’t want that kind of thing to happen, of course, so bags should be cleaned frequently. It’s also a good idea to have separate bags that you use for certain things, so that the risk of cross-contamination is lessened. It can be a little bit less convenient remembering what bag is for what kinds of items and making sure that your groceries get packed correctly, but food poisoning would be even more inconvenient. Don’t take that chance when you can easily avoid it. You can label the bags that you use, or get them in different colors – green for produce, red for meat, etc. Use whatever color combination or other system works for you.

There are many pros to eco friendly reusable shopping bags. As long as you’re careful with the cleanliness of them, you can use them for a long time without needing to buy more. You’ll be keeping disposable bags out of the landfills, and you’ll be saving your grocery store money, too, which can help keep prices down. That’s good news for you, and for everyone else who shops there. Plastic bags are a major expense for stores that use them, because they go through so many each and every day. When fewer of them are used, everyone wins – including Mother Earth.

Even though they’re designed to be thrown away, though, you can help out the environment by recycling them instead. Don’t assume that you can’t recycle them. You can put them in with the plastic that you recycle on your regular rounds, or you can put them in the recycling bins that a lot of the larger stores have created just for that purpose. Some people also reuse them for trash, cat litter, yard debris, and other things, so the bags get used again. If they’re used that way, though, the ultimately get thrown in the garbage – which isn’t helping the planet out in any way.

It’s much better to actually recycle the bags properly, so that they can stay out of landfills. Plastic takes many years to biodegrade, and the more bags show up in the landfills the more the planet struggles. Even if you’re not that interested in starting up a recycling regimen for the plastic, glass, and paper that you use every day, you can still pay close attention to the bags that you’re handed when you shop. When you get home, pile all the bags up and stuff them into one bag. Put them back in the car, and drop them off the next time you go shopping.

That way it won’t be inconvenient for you, you won’t have to go someplace special to turn the bags in, and you won’t have bags accumulating everywhere. Many people don’t recycle because they don’t want the hassle, but making sure that plastic bags get recycled doesn’t have to be difficult. Another excellent option for reducing plastic bag waste is by using reusable green bags otherwise known as eco friendly reusable shopping bags. These convenient items can go a long way. You can make it very simple and easy to handle, and you can get your family involved so you don’t feel like you’re the only one who’s dealing with the work of making sure plastic bags find their way into the hands of those who will recycle them.

First, recycling really is important. Don’t just recycle the plastic, paper, and glass that you use in your home, though. You should also have a compost pile for your garden and lawn, and you should be recycling all of those plastic bags that the bagger stuffs your groceries into at the market. Most of those markets have containers to put those bags in, so just return them to the store (and the container) the next time you go shopping. You’ll be doing your part of the recycling before you know it, and it’s really not that difficult. It also doesn’t take up much time, so don’t worry about that. Also remember to use green bags and eco friendly shopping bags when shopping. This can make a huge difference and eliminate the need to recycle so much in the first place

There are a lot of cleaners and household products today that are specifically designed to protect the environment from harm. You won’t need to worry about what kinds of chemicals your family and your pets are ingesting, and you won’t have to be afraid that you’re getting chemicals into the drinking water when you rinse them down the drain.

By using safe cleaning alternatives, you can do your part to protect the environment and you’ll still be keeping a nice, clean house for your friends and family to enjoy. It won’t change the world, but it won’t do it any harm, either.

While you’re recycling and creating a compost pile, you can use that compost for a garden. Growing your own food really isn’t that difficult. You just need to find out what grows well in your part of the country and determine when you need to plant it so you can get a great harvest. You’ll also want to make sure that you’re protecting your garden with some type of fencing so that rabbits and other small animals don’t get in and eat everything. You don’t have to use pesticides that can hurt the environment and the produce, either, because there are plenty of natural alternatives to keep your garden healthy so you can enjoy its bounty.

Countries that supply oil are aware of these shortages and therefore increase their prices each year. The more we lose the more problems we are faced with. Many governments are ready to go ahead with alternative energy sources, simply because of the high prices in the already lacking resources.

The first time the need for alternative energy sources came up in the United States in the 1970’s. An oil shortage in those years resulted in individuals staying at long queues in gas filling stations. It is not only vehicles that had this problem. Households suffered with a shortage of gas and other energy resources that were used in their day-to-day lives. This became a critical issue and experts started to find alternative energy sources to solve this issue. 

Many have come forward in their search for alternative energy sources and have provided information that there are alternative energy sources that can be used at a lower cost. Nevertheless, each and every human being knows that the resources we use today come with heavy price tags.

When talking about alternative energy sources, the wind, water and sun are some of the main three resources that are put into this use. If the technology is used properly with these resources, a more cost effective mode could be made. Instead of oil being used, people could replace it with such alternative energy sources and use it to turn their turbines for the generation process. Geothermal power and hydropower are also some of the alternative energy sources that are used today.

There may be several alternative energy sources that can be put to use, but not everyone can experience the same thing from different geographical locations. Simply stated, a person living in an area with fewer winds would not be able to experience the electricity generated by using the wind.

The same goes for individuals living in areas with less exposure to the sun. Solar power cannot be used in such locations. This proves that not every geographic location can be utilized for the generation of electricity.

The Environmental Literacy Council does a great job of explaining the negative effects of both plastic and paper disposable bags at EnviroLiteracy.Org.  Let’s start with the environmental impact of manufacturing plastic and paper bags in the first place.  Plastic bags are produced using oil, and so the environmental consequences of production includes everything from extracting the oil, to the separation of products in the refining process, to the plastic manufacturing process, and the energy used and emissions created to distribute the bags to retailers.  So in reality, the production of plastic bags (caused by our demand as consumers) is a contributing factor to our dependence on oil.  Paper bags, are of course made from trees and contribute to worldwide deforestation and reduction of habitats all over the earth.  Also, the amount of energy used to manufacture and distribute paper bags and the carbon emissions created even exceeds that of plastic bags.  The truth is that neither paper nor plastic bags are a healthy product for our environment, especially compared to eco friendly reusable shopping bags.

Of course, as you likely know, another major issue with disposable bags is the widespread pollution and litter problem, especially associated with plastic bags.  Plastic bags have evolved to become the “modern tumbleweed”.  They show up everywhere and often end up in ponds, streams, rivers, lakes and in the ocean.  While researching this article I came across some startling information at 5gyres.Org, which educates people regarding the 5 gyres in our world’s oceans.  Here’s an excerpt:  “At sea floating plastics are swept up into slow moving currents.  These currents are called ‘gyres’.  Our Oceans are dynamic systems…. made up of complex networks of currents… Large systems of these currents, coupled with wind and the earth’s rotation, create ‘gyres’, massive, slow rotating whirlpools in which plastic trash can accumulate.”  The most famous of these is the North Pacific Gyre, which has also been called the “great pacific garbage patch”, has been researched the most and is an accumulation of trash and plastic estimated by many to be twice the size of Texas.  What most people don’t know is that there are actually 5 gyres spread throughout our world’s oceans where trash, and especially plastic is accumulating at a fast rate.  One of the scariest parts about all this is that marine animals often ingest this waste floating in the sea and suffocate or starve to death as a result or then WE humans turn around and eat these fish (and the plastic).  By using biodegradable bags, as opposed to disposable paper or plastic bags, our individual actions contribute to the solution rather than the problem.

The environmental crisis our world finds itself in today demands that we take action.  As you can plainly see, the widespread use of disposable shopping bags contributes to major environmental problems that are not going away.  We must change our individual habits by remembering to use eco shopping bags and/or reusable green bags every chance we get.  When we take a stand against the widespread pollution problem caused by disposable shopping bags, we are creating a healthier world one decision at a time.

APP has recently been linked to being a major contributor to deforestation. Deforestation, the human-caused disappearance of naturally occurring forests by logging or burning, is a huge problem in today’s world.   It is estimated that around 50% or more of the world’s plants and animal species live in the 7% of the world where rainforests currently exist.  For example, the most famous of rainforests, the Amazon, a majestic 1.4 billion acre (5.5 million square kilometers) rainforest located in South America covering sections of 9 different countries, has only 82.3% of the moist broadleaf forest cover it had in 1970.   It is also estimated that between 1991 and 2000, the total loss of Amazon rainforest increased from 415,000 square kilometers to almost 600,000.  The data above is according to Wikipedia.com.

Another lesser known but equally struggling rain forest, the Indonesian rainforest, has made recent headlines after a report from Greenpeace.  In the report, Greenpeace accuses Asia Paper and Pulp of “relentlessly trashing rainforests, driving species extinction and, if left unchecked, will threaten Indonesia’s efforts to address climate change.”  APP is a division of the mega conglomerate, Sinar Mas, and calls itself one of the world’s leading pulp and paper companies.  According to CNN.com, Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest culprits of emitting greenhouse emissions largely because of the clear-cutting and burning of rainforests for logging and other purposes.   Indonesia has long been a recipient of criticism for its environmental practices mainly because of disregard for international and even their own laws. APP is currently going through a public relations nightmare due to the Greenpeace report, and of course is claiming Greenpeace’s claims are exaggerated.  Yet things recently took a turn for the worse for Sinar Mas when in July, 2010 Wal-Mart, already becoming a major advocate for transitioning its customer base to the use of sustainable green bags)announced it has “taken steps to stop” buying their paper, as a result of this and other controversies surrounding APP.  Sounds like APP’s denial of the problem is making things worse and now costing them major business.  The loss of Wal-Mart’s business over the next year will significantly impact their bottom line.

This brings us to a great question: In today’s difficult world-wide economy, how can business’s ensure they are adopting environmentally-friendly and energy efficient business practices and not on the wrong side of a PR controversy?   Business.Gov, the official business link to the US Government, has an 11-step guide to help companies ensure they are energy efficient, compliant with environmental regulations, and recognized as a “green business”.

Here are the steps (Click here to visit their site):

1 – Comply with Environmental Regulations

2 – Develop an Environmental Management Plan

3 – Build Green

4 – Buy Green Products

5 – Adopt Energy Efficient Practices

6 – Reduce, Reuse

7 – Recycle Wastes

8 – Conserve Water

9 – Prevent Pollution

10 – Create a Green Marketing Strategy

11 – Join Industry Partnership and Stewardship Programs.

Step 4 “Buy Green Products”, is a great suggestion that many companies fail to consider.   A unique way to raise awareness about deforestation while promoting your brand is through eco friendly promotional products like seed paper, which is made of actual seeds and can still germinate and sprout into a flower when planted.  Something as simple as seed cards such as a seed business card or a seeded thank you card can create a truly memorable interaction with a client or industry colleague.  You could also include a statement about deforestation on the stationary, making it absolutely clear about where your company stands on environmental issues.  Another one that stands out on this list is step 6, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Wastes”. Remembering to reduce and reuse is the best way to eliminate the need to recycle in the first place.

Now is the time to take action to stop deforestation as well as ensuring your company is recognized as a “green business”, thus solidifying your green reputation.  The 11 steps above are a great guide for any business owner or CEO to implement green practices in your business.   Embrace the challenge of perpetually improving your organization’s environmental footprint.  Your company’s leadership and example will help stop the devastating effects of deforestation and the investment will be well worth it.