Somehow the country's largest low-wage employer and the primary engine of global economic destruction becomes a good guy just by tossing some loose change to school kids.

While I am very happy to see Walmart greening their image by using sky lighting during the day, hybrid semis, and recycling programs, these steps do nothing to get me to shop there.
I suppose they don't need one more customer but maybe (hopefully) the greening of Walmart is not a huge marketing scheme to get more people into their store.

While I think its an AWESOME challange, it would help Wal*Mart to have reusable cloth bags to help offset the need to make more plastic bags!
However I walk proudly thru Wal*Mart w/ my cloth bags w/ other store labels on them each time I go!!

Although more needs to be done to reduce the volume of plastic bags used, this is a great way to get young people thinking about recycling.

Walt-Mart Kids Recycling Challenge sends mixed message

I tried to keep an open mind when I read about the "Wal-Mart Kids Recycling Challenge" in a local newspaper.

The first question that came to mind was, "Where are the kids getting these plastic bags? Are they wading through streams, walking up and down beaches, coastlines, parks, campsites, roads and trails?

Or are they simply stuffing the 60-gallon containers with bags gathered from family and friends to win the prize money?

To learn more, I visited the "Wal-Mart Kids Recycling Challenge" website. (That's also how I discovered this TreeHugger site.) I found out that the bags must be clean, dry and empty. The program does not accept bags that have been in direct contact with food because food tends to contaminate the bags and jam the recycling machines. That means that dirty plastic bags that litter the landscape do not qualify.

Common sense tells me this contest has it backwards. It encourages generating trash for the purpose of earning money by recycling bags that are totally unnecessary in the first place.

Instead of giving a prize to the school that collects the most plastic bags for their region, Wal-Mart should give a prize to the school that has the most families who refuse all plastic and paper bags.

The 3R's of waste reduction are: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. That means say NO to every plastic bag that is offered you.

If Wal-Mart wants to be green they should take steps to eliminate plastic shopping bags all together. In the meantime, they should start charging customers 5 cents for every plastic bag they give out and credit customers who bring their own bags and boxes 5 cents for every bag saved. All stores should provide a bin where customers can use re-cycled paper and plastic bags brought in by other customers, for those times they forget to bring their own.

Each cloth shopping bag has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic and paper bags over its lifetime. Instead of paying schools $5 for each 60 gallon container filled, students should be learning that it's easy being totally plastic and paper bag free!

Supermarkets in many European cities stopped handing out plastic bags years ago. I recall going to a market in Switzerland and they simply refused to give me a bag. I purchased a string bag on the spot, and after that I never again forgot to take my own bag to any stores in Europe.

My relatives in Holland take cardboard boxes to the store when shopping for large items or large quantities.

The time has come for cities across America to pass a Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, like the one they have in San Francisco. The facts and figures regarding the true cost of plastic bags are well-documented on web sites like www.reusablebags.com which features a counting clock of plastic bags consumed this year. Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide Over one million bags a minute are consumed, becoming trash and choking marine mammals.

Regular plastic bags do not biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.

Every store should have a sign near the check-out counter reminding consumers that it takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic bags Americans use each year. In addition, about 15 million trees are cut down to produce paper for paper bags. This would help remind shoppers that they can reduce oil consumption and save trees simply by bringing their own bag to the store.

A growing number of stores are selling inexpensive sturdy bags near the check-out counter. That's the right idea!

Storing the plastic and paper bags you already have on hand in the car or your bicycle basket so they are handy when you need them is one of the easiest things you can do for the environment. Ultimately that makes more sense than recycling them to win prize money from Wal-Mart!