About Bags – Cool, Funky & Unique Bags

Images via Vogue.com

It’s been a joy to watch Victoria Beckham’s transformation into a credible fashion maven, and even more so to see her take such a keen interset in accessories. After all, what celebrity would make a better accessories designer than the woman with one of the most impressive Birkin collections in the world? Intimate and functional familiarity with the minutiae of Hermes certainly makes Beckham a more qualified candidate than most of the stars who would like it be in her (very tall) shoes.

As with Beckham’s previous accessories outings, her color story was limited; neutrals were punctuated here and there with shots of brilliant orange, and those pieces were the clear standouts of the group. The shapes were a mix between previous hits and new ideas, but they were all somewhat traditional ideas executed in luxurious ways. I’ll take the bright, citrusy tote, please.

If there’s one thing you should note about Rebecca Minkoff Spring 2012, it’s how well the maven knows her customers. Her Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York runway show seemed to be actively daring “Minkettes” to feature her clothes on their personal style blogs, and if that wasn’t clear enough, having Leandra Medine, the ManRepeller herself, walk the runway (and then snap a photo at the end) should have put a very fine point on it.

And that’s exactly what Minkoff’s clothes are: Fun, trendy duds for girls in their 20s who want to be the most stylish person at the party and maybe get a couple of Tumblr posts out of it. I could imagine these pieces on a lot of the girls that you see hanging out on the steps at Lincoln Center outside of Fashion Week’s festivities, and I bet that’s exactly the girl who Minkoff would like to dress.

Most people have probably heard of bag ladies, but in San Francisco Thursday it was the bag monsters who took center stage. 

The bag monsters were actually about 60 politically minded environmental activists who dressed themselves in costumes made out of plastic bags and marched around Ghiradelli Square and Aquatic Park.

The stunt was to publicize their support for a pending bill in the state Legislature that would ban plastic bags at grocery, convenience and other stores.

When i see this piece of news , I really admire thoes environmental activists.They sacrifice themselves to the event to call for  the public to protect the environment from the respect of  plastic bags.We know that it would take thousands of years to dissolve may it will never dissolve on earth.A lot of people burn the plastic bags.What’s worse ,it causes the air pollution and it does have harm to people’s health.

And to the plastic bags  ban problem ,i would give some my ideas to you.The way of paying to the use of plastic bags is not the essential point to solve the problem.because the plastic bags still exists in the world .I think the scientist should try their best to seek the new way of manufacturing the plastic bags.They should avoid the poisonous materials in the use of the raw materils .The plastic bags should be developed into the materials friendly to the environment.

Austin, Texas is now considering a ban on plastic shopping bags, making it the latest city to debate paper vs. plastic.
Although cheap for retailers and convenient for the public, environmentalists say plastic bags are a costly burden to taxpayers. But plastic bag makers argue that attempted bans are a misguided effort to control consumer behavior, undercutting an important industry.

In June, Austin’s Solid Waste Services Department embarked on a 90-day study that will determine the overall cost of plastic bags from the point of manufacturing to the moment they hit the landfill. When the study is complete in September, Austin City Council will determine if the tax dollars devoted to plastic bags outweigh their added convenience.

Austin’s Democratic mayor, Lee Leffingwell, introduced the idea of this city ordinance against plastic bags in Austin. “Say you throw your bag into recycling. Once it gets into the recycling machine, it gets stuck in the gears, so it ends up we have to take extra time to pull the bags out,” said Amy Everhart, policy director for the mayor of Austin. “That’s what the study’s geared towards: figuring out how much it costs to deal with them.”

San Francisco conducted a similar study that demonstrated plastic bags cost up to 17 cents apiece in tax dollars.

Until the Austin study findings are released, retailers will continue to disperse the bags by the handful, and the resolution will remain in limbo.
“To earn the green reputation we have [in this] city, we need to take a leadership role,” said Stacy Guidry, Program Assistant for Texas Campaign for the Environment, a grassroots environmental advocacy organization. “We’re not living up to our reputation, and we need to take more action.”

San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Brownsville, Texas, have already made changes to their plastic bag policies, and Dallas, Portland, Ore., and the entire state of California are currently considering changes.

Grocers in Washington D.C. now charge shoppers a five cent fee for each plastic bag they take home. In the first month alone, the measure decreased the use of plastic bags in D.C. by 84 percent.

With city councils across the country advocating for reusable bags instead of plastic, the plastic bag industry is mounting a strong response.

When customers go to a supermarket, they are provided with plastic bags to carry their purchases. Furthermore, some buyers even ask for extra ones just for their own conveniences.Wen Huibao, a Shanghai based newspaper, carried a commentary saying that it’s urgent for citizens to raise their awareness of environmental protection in daily life.

Nowadays, supermarkets, restaurants and peddlers offer plastic bags to their customers free of charge. The spread of these plastic bags has become a serious environmental problem.

The article points out that although customers are required to pay for the plastic bags if they want to use them starting in June this year, this measure may have a limited effect on the restriction of plastic bag uses.The article also suggests that a campaign should be launched to raise citizens’ awareness of environmental protection and help them get rid of the habit of using plastic bags. In addition, the money charged for buying plastic bags after June 1 should be accumulated to set up a fund for environmental protection.

The newspaper concludes by saying that residents should contribute to promoting a clean and environmentally friendly society through their own restricted use of plastic bags in their daily lives.

And there is a report about the plastic bags ban’s effectiveness.

A wholesale market in Beijing has started a pilot campaign to discourage the use of plastic bags, 40 days ahead of the scheduled plastic bag ban. Many welcome the move, while others worry about its effectiveness. Our reporter Shuang Feng has more.

Chinese shoppers in the 1980s used cloth bags or baskets to tote their purchases. Now the trend is experiencing a resurgence.Starting last Sunday, vendors in Beijing’s Glorious Land Wholesale Market are charging extra for plastic bags as a test run of the approaching ban. Dealers believe this will help reduce the use of plastic bags.

Shen Yue’e, a wholesaler at the market, says she will try her best not to hand out plastic bags.”If the consumers insist, I will give them the plastic bags. Otherwise, for the sake of reducing pollution, I won’t.”

White pollution has become a concern as Chinese consumers have grown accustomed to free plastic bags since shopkeepers began offering them more than a decade ago.However, many consumers have welcomed the pilot campaign with open arms and have managed to strike a balance between convenience and environment-friendliness.”I brought it from home. Certainly it’s better than plastic bags, because cloth bags are washable, and can be reused for a long time. It’s also very convenient. Plastic bags have to be discarded. They are just a waste.”

“I always use cloth bags. I’m an environmentalist. It’s very convenient, especially if you are going somewhere far away. Plastic bags, particularly the colorful ones, may contain toxins that are harmful to our health.”

But some vendors worry the pilot ban may not be as effective as expected. Liu Xueming, a herb wholesaler, expressed his doubts about the move.”They will use it if they have to. People probably won’t care that they must pay 10 or 20 extra cents. The ban won’t work unless we stop producing the bags altogether. But I think people also need time to get used to it.”

It is estimated that millions of plastic bags are used every day in China, and billions of yuan are spent every year handling and recycling them. Plastic bags, if biodegradable at all, take 300 years to break down.

The State Council in January ordered a complete ban on the production and use of ultra-thin plastic bags that are not biodegradable. It will officially go into effect on June 1. The pilot campaign will hopefully eliminate the use of 10 million plastic bags by then.