Friday, August 10, 2007

Saving the world, one bag at a time



If you haven't heard of this bag yet, you've been living under a rock. That's British designer Anya Hindmarch's genius $15 'I'm Not A Plastic Bag' canvas tote that's being touted as a fashionable (and eco-friendly) alternative to the plastic bag.

This humble bag created such a frenzy when it went on sale in England in April, that devotees lined up at 2 am outside humdrum supermarkets and all 20,000 pieces were gone by 9 am. Several would-be owners were trampled in Taipei, Taiwan in July and a mob of Hindmarch fans forced police to shut down a mall in Hong Kong for the same reason - all for a bag meant to lug home your groceries from the supermarket!

An article on Time.com says:

The frenzy surrounding these limited-edition bags is the result of a calculated effort to encourage shoppers to use fewer disposable plastic sacks, some 88 billion of which are consumed each year in the U.S. alone, with many ending up stuck in trees, clogging roadside drains and killing the birds and sea creatures that accidentally ingest them.

As legislators around the globe debate whether to tax or ban outright these petroleum-based products - which experts estimate take up to 1,000 years to decompose - celebrities have been doing their part to steer consumers down a greener path. This year's trendy eco-tote has been photographed on the arms of actresses Keira Knightley, Alicia Silverstone and Reese Witherspoon.

Going Green rather fashionably, yes?

Image courtesy: Time.com

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