Columnist Josie Burck

So far for this project, Josie Burck has written two columns for the local newspaper, The Harbor Country News. Read the newest installment here:
 http://www.harborcountry-news.com/articles/2012/04/16/features/doc4f85d426a0466663717089.txt

There is also a great photo of the team along with some of the kids from the school's community garden project. Thanks for reading!

                               Paper or plastic? 

Are paper bags more environmentally friendly than plastic bags? You might think that paper bags are better than plastic bags, because they break down much easier than plastic bags, this is true they do break down faster and cleaner than plastic bags....But they use more energy during the making process and they generate 70% more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags, and not to mention they require trees to be cut down. So through research we have found that paper bags are not exactly a good alternative to HDPE plastic grocery bags.  Plastic bags are just as bad, or maybe worse than paper bags, so we think that the best way to help our environment is to reuse our plastic grocery bags.  

Wow we have 100 views on our youtube video already! and 400 views on this blog, that's awesome!

Science Detectives -- that's us!

On the helpful surveys that some of you completed awhile back, many people said they would not reuse their plastic grocery bags at the store because they felt they would be unsanitary. This is an interesting question, and one of our Bag-It team members (Sam) wanted to learn if this is true of not. He did a lot of research on this subject and found that while there is a lot of research on microbial growth on water bottles, water treatment places, and water pipes (and more), there is almost no research on the HDPE bags themselves. This is probably because they've been named "single use" and so why would we want to know?? Well, we want to know since we're telling you that you should reuse them at the store.

With the help of a couple of mentors, Sam designed an experiment using a technique called Presence/Absence testing -- it's a protocol that can be used for testing of water and food contamination. There were many, many test tubes and swabs and lots of learning. It turns out that when the HDPE bags are used once, there are microbes living on them. But after a week's time, most of the microbes didn't find the environment good for growing and multiplying, and died. This is important research because it supports our idea that it's pretty safe to reuse your plastic grocery bags for food. Now, if there was a bad spill in one of the bags (with meat or something else), you might not want to reuse that for food. And to make the bags even more sanitary, simply exposing them to air will most likely take care of things -- microbes mostly like wet, dark and moist places with a food source. HDPE plastic bags don't really do it for them -- they kind of don't like it.

How about that for science detectives?

Here is the link to the video he created to explain the story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oBVf_FmHfo

And some charts and a graph with data ...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApEwFJMsHOrUdDJZS2VHMjVIM0Q5eEF5VlloazZXWFE#gid=0

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApEwFJMsHOrUdHlreGYtVHZWeVVXR3lmZlJYLVhTYkE#gid=0

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1i-0PK4YENiVTSwG1JIlCuJfblCsoGIPZfYp_TYajHkE/edit

Job well done!

Yesterday the Bag-it team presented the check for $250 from FOTO (Friends Of Three Oaks) to the elementary school's Garden Project. A bunch of kids, plus their mentors were there, including the Bag-it team (Josie, Sam, Ylana, Miloh).

Congratulations Three Oaks for accomplishing this goal! Now keep on reusing your plastic bags at the grocery store and remember to come back and leave us a comment.

Bag-it Video

Hello everyone,

We have submitted our science Bag-it project to the Siemens We Can Change The World contest! We will update you when we get the results. The state finalists are announced sometime in April, Winners are sometime in May. We would like all of you to watch this movie before we tell you the results! It is the movie that got sent to the Siemens challenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIl6eJH8Pz0&feature=youtu.be

Thank you so much for your help and support everyone!

Please post comment under this video (or any post), and follow us!

Goal Met -- Bonus offered!

Congratulations! In just two days the goal of 30 people reusing their plastic grocery bags was met -- that's really great news. This is so successful and we want to add a bonus to keep people motivated. So, if by the end of March 11 150 people reuse their plastic bags, a bonus will be added to the garden project's $250. So keep going for a good cause! And please leave your thoughts and comments at this blog site. It's important to document your experience about how you reuse and/or how you changed your usage behavior.

What do you do?

Alright everyone. We have figured out, by reaching out to various people, that there are many different ways to re-use plastic grocery bags! Some people pick up their dog's poop with them, some people re-use them at the store, and one person even crocheted a rug from them! What do you do? Have any of you ever re-used them at the store? If so, tell us about your experiences in a comment below.

Why plastic bags are so bad

Hello everyone! I am sure you have been enjoying the last sunny days, and the warm weather, well for at least a couple days or so. And then you remember that day you looked out at this magnificent scene, with the sunset glowing and the warm breeze blowing. And an ugly plastic grocery bag flies by, ruining your scene. You get so DANG angry at it. I mean, what is it doing out there anyways? Well that very well is one of the bags you just threw away in your trash can. It either flew out of the dump truck or got thrown out the window of someone's house. Then you think of how many STUPID plastic grocery bags you have crammed into a corner in your house! Well, think of a way to use those....... Anything? Why not RE-USE them, bring them into your car and the next time you go shopping, re-use them! Its your best chance to get rid of them now. Okay, those of you who think of all the gross bacteria living on the bags may think it disgusting. But almost all of that bacteria is perfectly normal, and healthy. Some of it you absolutely need in your body! Use the bag until it's no good anymore.

Why should you re-use them? Well, let's just talk about the beginning of the bag's life. At the end of one year, 12 million barrels of oil will have been used by the US to make these bags. Your plastic bags just added to that. And almost all of it is wasted because it is used once. And SO much energy is used for making them by the end of the year. You may think, whatever, but it is too much to use for 100 billion plastic bags. At the Three Oaks Harding's store, you get 3 cents back for each bag you re-use, that is a great deal! Make it the new trend!