One Bag at a Time....

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Hanover High School students in Hanover, NH have decided to help protect their environment by taking on the challenge of convincing consumers in their town to switch from disposable shopping bags to reusable ones...

The whole project sprang out of a family trip one of the kids took to Australia, where they learned about a similar grass-roots project that spread in that country, and helped to cut the use of disposable shopping bags from 6 billion/year down to 2.5 billion/year just three years into the program. These kids in New Hampshire are hoping to start a similar grass-roots movement here in the US, and they've already convinced local co-ops to purchase and sell 5,000 of the bags beginning in January. The bags, which are a bright green color with the slogan "Caring for the environment, one bag at a time." printed on them retail for only a buck a piece... A far cry from the $8 to $13 retailers in their area now charge for reusable cloth bags.

As the students noted, a decrease in price would quite probably lead to an increase in sales if people were properly educated about them and so the Hanover Selectboard and four other sponsors have agreed to help in the publicity drive for their campaign...

Ultimately the students noted that their "dream" was to see these bags sold at big retailers in the neighboring town of West Lebanon... Let's hope that's just the beginning!