Plastic Bag Syndrome

While there are not much reports available for us about what will be the effects of Plastic Bags on our health, there is a possibility for you to experience this so called Plastic Bag Syndrome. Plastic Bags Syndrome is something related to pressure on our neurovascular causes a temporary Ischeamia around the distal part of our finger coupled with a neuropraxia of the digital nerves. I believe that this so called Plastic Bags Syndrome is a result of too much relying on plastic bags in our everyday life in whatever you are doing. I have seen someone always going around with plastic bags on her finger to carry her things and that certainly one day will lead to this Plastic Bag Syndrome.

The result of Plastic Bag Syndrome is not something you will need urgent medical assistance and often forgotten but in some cases a medical advice is sought. Normally one will feel the discomfort or numbness is fleeting but so far I really think there are no serious cases reported so far. Whatever it is you should not think it is not something you should forget about. The injury on your finger can lead to permanent damage and subsequent limitation in the use of your finger. The public should be informed about this fact and must advice then to take simple precaution which is we should stop using plastic bags right now. Don't you think not being able to use your fingers is funny? It is not and I want to tell you to stop using plastic bag starting by today.

How to fold eco-friendly bags

Ecobags sometime looks bulky and that is the reason why many people refuse to use it. Actually if you are creative enough you can fold them into an attractive looks and small. The video below is one example about how to fold the ecobag.

Good luck and let us save our mother earth, avoid plastic bags.

Shades of Green - 10 Simple Ways to Cool the Earth

Shades of Green - 10 Simple Ways to Cool the Earth
By: Sue Brenner, Performance Coach and Author

You already know that global warming is serious and that we collectively need to do our part to cool it. But that doesn't mean you have to pitch a tent in the woods and drink your water from a stream. Here are 10 simple ways to cool the earth, from carrying your own water bottle to car pooling. Do any or all of these and you'll feel good about doing your part to cherish the environment. And you might inspire others to do the same.

1. Pack your own water.

Rather than buying a plastic bottle every time you need a sip, pack your own H2O. Sturdy, reusable bottles last and are easy to clean. Fill your water bottle up at the office or gym water cooler, or filter your water at home. You’ll save money while you spare the earth, and you won’t need to find a place to recycle your disposable plastic water bottles.

2. Switch light bulbs.

Actor and environmentalist Leonardo DeCaprio encourages everyone to switch bulbs. Replace standard household and office light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. They cost less than $4 U.S. and are made by major companies. You’ll pay more up front, but will save about $60 U.S. for the full life of the bulb. Why not join in? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that if all American households swapped 5 light bulbs with fluorescent ones it would save the amount of energy equivalent to removing 8 million cars off the road. Another alternative—install dimmers on your lights. Create romantic mood lighting while reducing carbon dioxide.

3. Skip the solo drive.

At least one day per week, ditch the lone commute. Ride your bike, carpool, take the Metro or tele-commute. Mexico City has a law that requires each vehicle to be parked—and off the road—one specified day per week. In many places throughout U.S., such as the San Francisco Bay Area in California, find a carpool pal by calling 511. Or, if you'd prefer to find a carpool buddy within your own company, encourage your HR department to look into innovative programs such as ridespring.com. RideSpring, a web-based service, makes carpooling a cinch and even offers cool prizes to give people an extra incentive to curb single-driver commutes.

4. Kick the idle off.

Waiting for your carpool buddy outside the house? Cut the engine. When you turn your car off, you reduce the release of carbon dioxide. You save fuel too. Remove just 10 minutes of idling, and avoid putting 550 pounds of carbon dioxide in the air yearly. One woman, Lynn Romanek of Glencoe, Illinois, rallied parents to turn their engines off during kid drop-off and pick-up times. You can lead the way in your community.

5. Carry a portable coffee mug.

How many times a day do you dash to the coffee shop and bring a paper cup back to your office? Invest in a ceramic or stainless steel mug to reuse every day. Lots of coffee shops sell them. Your company store probably sells them too. Why not add one to your birthday list? They're easy to carry and easy to clean. Use your mug in your car, on the train or during a walk to work. You can drink your favorite hot beverage in style while treading gently on the earth.

6. Keep the plastic off your clothes.

Add these two easy steps to your dry cleaning routine: (1) bring a garment bag to the cleaners; (2) insert your own hangers into the bag. Have the cleaner put your clean clothes on your own hangers in the garment bag instead of using plastic covers. Pop your clothes straight into the closet when you get home, save the dry cleaner money and spare the earth. If you have extra wire hangers in your closet, take them back to the cleaner to be reused. You can also explore the growing trend of green cleaners, such as greenearthcleaning.com, who use non-toxic solvents.

7. Reduce packaging.

While you’re losing the plastic on your clothes, limit other packaging as well. Sometimes you can find cereal in just a plastic bag, rather than cardboard and plastic. Purchase in bulk. Buy from local farmers’ markets using your own bags. Use concentrated items when it comes to laundry detergent and cleaners. Simple Green is a good concentrated nontoxic cleaning option. Along with your paper grocery bags, bring back those small plastic veggie bags for re-use too. Move beyond the days of tearing off a new bag at the store for your lone zucchini. Some things can just sit on top of other food.

8. Buy recycled paper towels.

When you buy paper towels for the office or home, why not grab the recycled option? Also opt for recycled toilet paper, tissues and napkins. (Or use cloth.) The average American uses 6 napkins a day. If everyone started by cutting out just one of those, or using a 100% recycled one instead, it would save about a billion pounds of paper waste a year. More and more stores now offer recycled paper products. If yours doesn’t, request recycled items or order online from sites such as ecoproducts.com.

9. Don't trash your cell phone.

Or other electronics. Prevent landfills from turning into seas of gadgets. Mobile phones alone pile up 65,000 tons of waste and leak toxins such as mercury and lead into the soil. Sell your equipment on eBay, donate or recycle it. One entrepreneur says, "I'm amazed at how easy it is to sell old electronics on eBay. I sold a slide projector and computers... all stuff I had outgrown." You can also donate your items to non-profits. Try call2recycle.org or collectivegood.com—a company that supports groups like the American Red Cross. If you simply want to pass on something to someone else, use freecycle.com. It’s a resource for people who want to give away their stuff for free.

10. Bring your own grocery bag.

Do grocery bags build up in your home? They do in other households too. Americans use nearly 100 billion plastic bags per year. Most of those bags don't get recycled. Bring a canvas shopping bag instead or reuse the bags you already have. You can also pick up canvas bags at local grocers and from environmental groups when you make a donation. Put a canvas bag with a few brown bags inside it in your trunk. Have them ready and at your fingertips when you need them. Form a new habit. Using your own bags is easy!

By now you can see that you don’t have to sell all of your belongings and live in a tent to help preserve the environment. Pick one change you’re committed to making and begin practicing it. Whether it’s packing your own water bottle, bringing a canvas bag to the market or passing your cell phone on to the next user, each step you take does make a difference. Take action today so that we can savor the earth for generations to come.

Good News: Affrica Bans Plastic.

I was having a cup of coffee this morning before my computer monitor when I accidentally stumbled upon this wonderful news. Several African countries has taken a bold new measure by banning plastic to tackle and solve their plastic problem. Apparently some of the African countries are severely affected by this increasing amount of plastic waste in most of the big city like Lagos in Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya.

According to Sarah Simpson (Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor) plastics now are more than a nuisance. Blocked sewers help spread disease. Farmers complain that precious livestock are choking to death on plastic bags, ruining their livelihoods, while rubbish-strewn streets and countryside are counter-productive for Kenya's tourism-based economy. This situation I believe not only putting people life in danger but also will tarnish the image of the respective country.

The move to ban plastics is indeed very much appreciated and welcomed. I believe more countries in the world should follow by imposing a total ban on plastic. Please refer to the article below about this good news. I know that switching to ecobags will not be able to solve the problem 100% but being able to reduce or to stop plastic bags from further harming our environment is very important.

Clogged by plastic bags, Africa begins banning them

Several African countries have taken bold new measures to tackle the region's severe waste-management problems.

By Sarah Simpson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Lagos, Nigeria; and Nairobi, Kenya - Once a month, John Ebiwari drags an iron rake through the open sewer that runs in front of his house in Nigeria's sprawling commercial capital of Lagos and scoops out the discarded plastic bags that block the flow of bubbling black filth.

On the last Saturday of each month Lagos police officers armed with big sticks make sure residents fulfill their legal duty and clean up their neighborhoods for 'Sanitation Day.'

The clean up provides a minimum of order in Lagos. But, in a move more drastic than seen in most Western countries, several African nations are tackling the scourge by banning or restricting use of plastic bags.

The United Nations estimates that only 10 percent of rubbish in Africa makes it to dumps, with the rest left to rot in communities or burned in acrid bonfires.

As Africans increasingly live in cities, waste management has become a real development problem.

Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda have passed laws banning or restricting the use of a main culprit: the ordinary plastic grocery bag.

By the end of the year, Kenya is expected to follow suit.

More than 48 million plastic bags are produced in Kenya each year, according to the UN.

"We need to ban these flimsy plastic bags, which we only use once and dispose of, because all of them make their way into the environment," says environmentalist Joseph Gondi of Kenya's prominent Green Belt Movement, founded by 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. "You may collect them and say you are taking them to the dump site, but we do not have well managed landfill sites here in Kenya."

The bags are more than a nuisance. Blocked sewers help spread disease. Farmers complain that precious livestock are choking to death on plastic bags, ruining their livelihoods, while rubbish-strewn streets and countryside are counter-productive for Kenya's tourism-based economy.

A clean-up is under way. Five years ago the downtown area of Kenya's capital Nairobi was dirty and unkempt, say residents.

But an army of street cleaners, lots of new litter bins, and a tree-planting program – spearheaded by the Green Belt Movement – have had a dramatic impact for the better.

The government has already passed legislation that will usher in a 120 percent tax on plastic carrier bags and packaging, and a ban on plastic bags less than 30 micrometers thick.

On the outskirts of the spruced-up city center, well away from the safari routes of khaki-clad tourists, most of Nairobi's 3 million residents live in slums.

"Plastic bags are a big problem, one of our worst in life today," says Khamasi Josephat Bandi who lives and works for a small charity in Nairobi's Kibera slum. He supports the proposed ban, and deep among the tin shacks, where pit latrines empty into a broad sewage channel, it's easy to see why.

The channel, which before it became clogged with rubbish was regularly flushed clean by rain, is a stomach churning mass of feces and plastic bags. When the rains come, standing water is a breeding ground for malarial mosquitoes.

"Plastic bags only recently came to Kenya," says Gondi. "Only 15 years ago, women shopped with baskets, and I remember buying fish and sweet potatoes wrapped in banana leaves, not a flimsy plastic bag."

In Nigeria, where plastic bags are legal, women prepare and sell food that customers take away in plastic bags so thin many items have to be double wrapped.

The only affordable clean drinking water comes in plastic sachets, too. Deola Asabia, who runs an environmental charity in Lagos, says there is little hope of a ban on plastic bags in Nigeria until the population has access to clean drinking water.

"The government realizes that they can't get rid of plastic bags," says Mr. Asabia, because without access to clean drinking water "people would be up in arms."

Asabia and other members of her church have set up a charity called Changing Our World Foundation, which has adopted the Obalende neighborhood of Lagos, where Ebiwari was cleaning.

With sponsorship from a local bank and cooperation with the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, they're making sure that Sanitation Day is as widely adhered to as possible.