Since their introduction in American grocery stores 30 years ago, plastic carryout bags have become both wildly popular and widely despised.

We tend to like them when they let us get all our stuff from the checkout counter to the car and into the house in one trip. After that, they’re a nuisance in the house — where they accumulate with amazing speed — and a combination eyesore and environmental problem outside, where they take flight and add unsightliness wherever they land.

Oh, sure. Many of us have reusable cloth bags that we bought with the best intentions of eliminating plastic sacks from our lives. We think about those bags every time we’re in the checkout line without them. And we collect the plastic bags at home intending to do something with them, like finding one of the few recycling depositories for them. More often than not, though, they go in the trash.

A bill passed by the Illinois Senate and under consideration in the House would establish a statewide system for recycling those bags (and other plastic wrapping film) and would require the manufacturers of the bags to underwrite it. The tradeoff is that municipalities except Chicago lose the right to ban or impose taxes on plastic bags under the bill.

Looking at this from the angle of practicality, we see this as a fair trade and a smart way to turn a nuisance into a benefit.

Under the bill, manufacturers of plastic bags would be required by 2014 to have a collection site in 90 percent of Illinois counties and show that at least 75 percent of the population lives within 10 miles of a collection site. Manufacturers of bags would have to register with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency at a cost of $500 a year and retailers would not be allowed to use plastic bags from an unregistered manufacturer.

We acknowledge up front that the best solution to the plastic bag problem is for consumers to use reusable bags. Many already do, and many retailers have joined the effort. There’s momentum behind the cloth-bag movement and we expect it to continue.

Some American cities have banned plastic bags entirely, or imposed per-bag taxes on them to discourage their use. But we sense no appetite (and perhaps no need) for imposition of outright bans in Illinois municipalities. Likewise, we doubt any municipality is eager to impose a tax that would affect so many consumers and so many transactions. Exchanging the ability to ban or tax for a workable, efficient recycling system hardly seems like an egregious infringement on local autonomy.

This bill is backed by groups that represent retail merchants, who use the bags, and the manufacturers who make them. Though it would impose additional regulation on them, they support the bill because it would establish a uniform system throughout the state and would prevent the emergence of a patchwork of bans and fees in municipalities and counties statewide.

Our real hope for this bill is that it boosts awareness of and support for plastic bag and wrap recycling to the point that those items become part of curbside recycling programs (assuming users learn to secure the bags in their bins). Making this part of our weekly recycling routine will be an important step in keeping bags out of both our trees and our landfills.

 

The retailer will give all “shwopped” clothes to Oxfam, which will either re-sell them through its website and network of stores, re-use them in international markets where there is demand (for example, summer clothing in Africa, warm clothing in Eastern Europe) or recycle them into new materials. High-quality materials will be recycled into new fabric to make clothing, and low-quality materials will be recycled into products like upholstery and insulation.

According to M&S, some 500,000 tons of clothes are sent to landfill each year, which is equivalent to the weight of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Kalifa.

In stores, M&S customers will be invited to leave their old or unwanted clothes of any brand in cardboard recycling boxes called Shwop Drops. M&S will place more than 1,200 Shwop Drops across the UK, at least two per store, alongside cash registers.

If customers would like to register their shwop, they can follow the instructions on the box to text and enter into a monthly prize draw. Customers can also register their shwops online through a Facebook app.

M&S has worked with Oxfam on clothes recycling for four years. In 2008 the two organizations launched the Oxfam Clothes Exchange. The scheme encouraged people to take their old or unwanted clothes back to Oxfam stores in return for a £5 money-off voucher, redeemable at M&S. The exchange has seen more than 10 million items of clothing donated, worth an estimated £8 million to the charity. It will continue to operate alongside the Shwopping program.

M&S has also named actress Joanna Lumley as its new worldwide ambassador of Plan A, the retailer’s eco and ethical program with initiatives to address climate change, waste, raw materials, health and fair business practices. Lumley will front the Shwopping campaign.

At the initiative’s kick-off event, M&S covered an East London street  in 10,000 items of unwanted clothing – the same number that it says go to landfill every five minutes.

M&S recently was named a runner-up in the CR Reporting Awards for its 2011 corporate responsibility report. The retailer also made Ethisphere’s 2012 Most Ethical Companies list.

BY JESS ZIMMERMAN

One popular American automotive manufacturer has announced plans to use recycled plastic to create upholstery for the car seats in some 2012 vehicles.

According to Chris Woodyard of USA Today, Ford Motor Company has announced that they will use approximately two million plastic bottles to create the car-seat fabric for the 2012 Focus Electric and select other automobiles during the current model year. Each car, truck, or SUV will consist of an average of 22 recycled bottles, Woodyard added.

CNET’s Liane Yvkoff says that the Focus will feature a type of seating material known as Repreve. Repreve, which is manufactured by North Carolina-based fabric producer and processor Unifi, is “a blend of post-industrial fiber waste and post-consumer waste such as the plastic water bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET),” she says.

Woodyard says that, according to Ford, approximately 29% of the plastic bottles are recycled. Furthermore, Yvkoff says that Ford and Unifi will be collecting plastic bottles at both the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and that those bottles will be recycled and turned into upholstery for the Focus EV.

“Ford is committed to delivering vehicles with leading fuel efficiency while targeting at least 25 percent clean technology in interior materials across our lineup,” Carol Kordich, lead designer of Sustainable Materials for Ford, said in a statement Thursday. “The Focus Electric highlights this commitment as Ford’s first gas-free vehicle, and the first in the automotive industry to use branded Repreve.”

“After decades of education, the United States PET bottle recycling rate is only at 29 percent, about half the rate of Europe,” added Unifi President and COO Roger Berrier. “We hope this recycling initiative with Ford will help raise visibility around the importance of recycling with a goal to drive recycling rates to 100 percent, diverting millions of plastic bottles from entering the waste stream and potentially back into Repreve-branded fibers.”

According to the company’s press release, the new seat fabric will reduce energy consumption by countering the need to use newly-refined crude oil during the production process.

“The move seems a little gimmicky, but it’s not the only way that Ford is lowering its carbon footprint from manufacturing,” Yvkoff said. “Many vehicles also include soy foam seat cushions and head restraints (headrests), wheat-straw-filled plastic, castor oil foam in instrument panels, recycled resins for underbody systems, recycled yarns on seat covers, and natural-fiber plastic for interior components.”

Recycling and re-use have many environmental benefits, including reducing the amount of waste we bury in already overcrowded landfills and burn in polluting incinerators, like the one pictured here. (Credit: iStock/Thinkstock)

Recycling has been around in one form or another for centuries, but what do you really know about it?

Archaeologists have found evidence of recycling that took place around or perhaps earlier than 400 B.C. Recycling has developed in many ways since then, however, some of the most significant changes have taken place just in the past couple hundred years or so, due to some major historical events.

Industrial Revolution Era

Recycling was surprisingly routine prior to the Industrial Revolution. Mass production was far from the norm, which meant it was cheaper to reuse your materials than to buy new ones.

However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s recycling waned as the Industrial Revolution made its way across the globe. The introduction of machine-based manufacturing dropped production costs significantly, and allowed many companies to mass-produce their materials for the first time. As a consumer, it was suddenly cheaper and more convenient to buy new products from a flooded market than to reuse the old ones, so recycling took a back seat.

Pre- and During WWII

The next major comeback recycling made was due to some economic hardships, both nationally and globally, in the decades to follow. The stock market crash of 1929 devastated the global economy, creating the Great Depression which lasted in most countries until the ‘30s and ‘40s. With unemployment at a record high and poverty becoming common-place, recycling was put to use again in order to make materials last and dollars stretch.

The Great Depression eventually ended, but its end marks the beginning of World War II. While the war effort is generally credited with helping the U.S. dig its way out of economic peril, the theme of conservation still rang true. Financial constraints and material shortages while troops were overseas meant many households had to make due with less, and therefore continued to recycle.

Recycling at that point was practically patriotic!

Post-WWII

The end of World War II prompted an economic boom which dealt another drastic setback to the concept of recycling. A rebounding economy meant more money was being spent on new goods and fewer items were being recycled.

Landfills started gaining popularity in the U.S. as a convenient out of sight, out of mind option for waste disposal. As the historical pattern would predict, this prosperous time for the nation meant much less attention was paid to conservation and preservation compared to tougher times.

‘60s and ‘70s

It wasn’t until the ‘60s and ‘70s that recycling regained its momentum during the environmental movement. Decades of industry growth and improper waste disposal left unchecked caused enough public concern to give environmental protection a real platform.

By 1970, environmental issues had gained enough attention worldwide to prompt the first Earth Day, as well as the development of the now well-known universal symbol for recycling. 1970 also marks the creation of theEnvironmental Protection Agency – a U.S. government agency established to help protect the environment through research and regulation.

Rising energy costs in the ‘70s motivated recycling efforts as well. Both consumers and corporations were learning that energy and money could be saved, along with unsustainable resources.

‘80s and ‘90s and Beyond

In the decades to follow, recycling efforts were still better incorporated into everyday life, but have struggled to maintain the enthusiasm of the shift seen in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Curbside pickup of recyclables was introduced and became the norm, which helped establish recycling as a more convenient option.

Ozone depletion gained more substantial recognition as an environmental concern and was used to motivate recycling efforts on a wider scale. Production of plastic materials rose significantly, changing the scene for determining which materials were being submitted for recycling.