Wal-Mart recently reviewed their policy on offering $1.00 reusable bags in their stores.
They are rightfully touting the impact they are having, but it could be SO MUCH MORE.
(A Snippet of the release is below)

I truly don’t understand why a company as big as Wal-Mart wants to charge for reusable bags.
The average customer is so much more likely to try using a reusable bag if it doesn’t cost extra.

Why don’t they just print Wal-Mart on the bag and chalk it up to advertising expense.

Think how many MORE shoppers would use and hopefully bring back a reusable bag if it was free. 

I think they could start today and adopt a policy that a year from now only reusable bags will be used in their stores.  During this year the bags are free and next year you have to pay the $1.00 if you don’t have your bag to use or bring it in for exchange if it is worn out.

Maybe we should email Wal-Mart and suggest they make the bags FREE for 1 year.

Do you think this is a good idea or have other thoughts on ways large retailers can help solve the plastic bag issue?

How about it Wal-Mart?? 

SNIPPET
Bag Facts

In October 2007, we began selling reusable bags in all of our Wal-Mart discount stores, Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets for $1

each. Selling reusable bags is good for our business because it reduces the number of plastic bags we need to produce. More importantly,

it benefits our customers. Not only can we pass these savings along to our customers, but by using a reusable bag, our customers can

reduce the amount of waste that they generate.

• Our initial estimates show that each reusable bag will eliminate the need for at least 150 plastic disposable bags over its lifetime. We

have sold enough bags to eliminate the need for at least 800 million disposable bags.

• Each of the black reusable bags are made with recycled polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) plastic generated from approximately four

soda or water bottles.

• About the size of a regular paper bag, the reusable bags are expected to hold approximately the same weight as two to three regular,

disposable plastic bags.

• When the bag wears out, customers can return it to their local Wal-Mart store for recycling. We will combine the worn bags with the rest

of the used plastic generated by our stores into our super sandwich balers, where it will be bundled and sent to a certified recycler for

processing. So far, we estimate that we’ve diverted more than 97 million pounds of plastic from landfills.

There are ways to try to reduce junk mail. but they take time, and lots of it.
So while you are waiting for your www.greendimes.com service to reduce your junk mail, why not try and find ways to use all that paper instead of throwing it into the landfill.

I shred most of my junk mail and save it for packing items that have to be shipped.

I dream about using the shreds to make my own beautiful homemade paper, but doubt I’ll ever take the time to do that.
If you do make your own paper I would love to hear and learn about it.

This article on using the paper to mulch is very interesting. Frugality in Practice: Turn Your Junk Mail into Garden Mulch

If you have used paper for mulching or have another idea on how to use junk mail please share it.