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In the bag and out of the bottle

Alison Peters

The latest fashion blunder: be caught carrying plastic.

Celebrities such as Keira Knightly and Petra Nemcova are carrying Anya Hindmarch's "I'm Not a Plastic Bag"-a stylish, reusable shopping bag-showing that being eco-friendly has also become style-friendly.

The city of San Francisco already banned plastic bags in its efforts against global warming and, as reported in a 2007 Newsweek article, is limiting the use of plastic water bottles by prohibiting the sale on city owned property and at city events, while offering free stainless steel containers to residents pledging not to use plastic bottles.

While a few Miami University students have picked up Hindmarch's hot bag, businesses in Oxford, as well as the university, are also making efforts to get greener-and perhaps just a bit more stylish.

October has brought reusable bag options to Oxford's Wal-Mart, Kroger and Miami's on-campus McCracken Market. And looking to combat the other plastic problem, the university is also looking to sell more reusable water bottles-hoping to combat the amount of plastic disposed each day on campus.

By the end of this year, more than 500 billion plastic bags will be used by consumers, with approximately 4.5 million being from the Oxford community, according to www.reusablebags.com and the 2000 U.S. Census.

Americans will also buy an estimated 25 billion single-serving, plastic water bottles this year. Unfortunately, eight out of 10 (22 billion) will end up in a landfill, not recycled.

The Miami campus goes through 220,000 bottles of water during its academic year, according to Nancy Heidtman, director of dining and culinary support services at Miami University.

These habits come with serious environmental implications. One and a half million barrels of oil are used annually to produce plastic water bottles for America alone-enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year, according to reusablebags.com. Instead of fueling cars though, these convenient plastics are just ending up in landfills.

Neither paper nor plastic

The shift toward environmental awareness can now be seen at the checkout options in Oxford.

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The current bag choices at the Oxford Kroger include paper, plastic-and now canvas. Within the past month, Kroger has started sell a canvas bag for $.99 and an insulated bag option for $2.99.

"Plastic is by far the consumer choice at the moment," said Ed Bagley, Oxford Kroger Store manager. "We now offer an incentive program for customers who use the reusable bags and we will give them $.05 off their total purchase for each bag they bring in and use."

Customers can bring in their own old plastic bags and reuse them and the incentive program would still apply.

Oxford's Wal-Mart is currently looking into the same type of program.

"The current bag options are in the process of changing," Haarmeyer said. "Starting the week of Oct. 8, customers will be able to purchase new canvas bags for a dollar. We are really trying to get away from plastic bags."

A plan for rewarding the customer for choosing reusable bags is still being discussed at Wal-Mart.

"Oxford Wal-Mart uses anywhere from 8,000 to 20,000 plastic bags a week," said David Haarmeyer, Oxford Wal-Mart Store manager.

Unlike most plastic bags though, Wal-Mart's current plastic bags are made from already recycled plastic bags.

Here on Miami's campus, the first week of October brought a new product to McCracken Market-a reusable black mesh bag for students to use in place of the plastic bags offered. The bags are $5.99 and are portable, since they fold back up into themselves, so students can just throw them into their book bags and take them out when needed.

"Right now, the bags are in trial mode," Heidtman said. "We're trying to get a feel for how students react to them, but we're constantly keeping the environment in our minds with every food or non-food purchase we make."

One of the concerns is the added cost.

"If I could give the bags away, I would," Heidtman said.

For Miami junior Sandra deIrala, the decision comes down to personal cost over environmental cost.

"If the bag was given to me, I'd use it, but I would never buy it on my own," deIrala said. "Overall though, I think the concept it great, but college students don't have that kind of disposable money."

DeIrala feels most students tend to have bags with them around campus.

"Unless I buy a lot of items, I wouldn't take a plastic bag anyway," she said.

Miami feeds more than 20,000 meals a day to its students in the 10 different dining halls, offering several carry out options. Because of student lifestyle, Heidtman feels about half of the students choose to carry out food and as a result, Miami uses 50,000 to 70,000 plastic bags a month.

Another way to deter plastic bag usage is by following Heidtman's advice to sit down for dinner.

"I firmly believe that everyone should sit down and eat a nutritious dinner on china every night amongst family, or in the case of college, friends." Heidtman said. "With Miami's dining services, we are also selling education; it's not in the form of a textbook, but in the form of healthy meal."

Rinse and reuse

The switch from plastic bottled water containers to reusable bottles comes with similar financial implications.

"I think a good idea for campus would be to offer a more durable water bottle that could be reused and refillable in the markets," said Kellen Pucher, a Miami senior.

The simple idea isn't as easily put into action, with bottled water sales exceeding $10 billion in 2006, according to greenraising.com, Americans are consuming more than 70 million bottles each day.

Pucher agrees, and it's not just bottled water he goes through each week.

"I drink between four to five bottled waters a week, plus I like to drink a Naked Fruit Juice everyday, which is also in a plastic bottle," Pucher said.

Jon Brubacher, manager of food purchasing at Miami, feels the pressure to provide bottled water for students.

"Bottled water companies are savvy marketers," Brubacher said. "One positive outlook with bottled water is that students are drinking water over a carbonated drink."

To make water an on-campus option without the plastic, Miami's markets will be selling stainless steel water bottles as a non-food item available in the near future, according to Heidtman.

Slowly changes are being made and people are becoming more aware of the extensive use of disposable plastics.

Reusable grocery bags and refillable water bottles are the first steps toward change.

"People use these items because they are portable and convenient," Oxford Kroger manager Bagley said. "We're a consumer-driven market and until the consumer demands the change, plastics are likely to stay the consumer choice. At least now, we are placing the idea of reusable items into customer's heads and there is more hope for change."