Witches' Knickers

In Scotland, they have a great nickname for the plastic shopping bag: witches’ knickers. It’s an apt monniker for one of the more obnoxious inventions of the modern age: an item of convenience that has burgeoned into a persistent environmental menace that clogs the landfills, sullies our trees and streets and degrades into a million tiny little pieces over time.

In different cities and towns across the globe, people are saying enough to the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag, and we’re happy to see that Colorado’s ski towns are joining the campaign. The Colorado Association of Ski Towns push to “Bring Your Own Bag” kicks off Feb. 1, and hopefully everyone here in Summit County will get on board.

We’ve noticed checkers from Safeway and City Market to Target and Wal-Mart are fine with people bringing their own bags. Granted, it’s no doubt easier for them to use the plastic, but it seems retailers around the county, nation and world will need to get used to BYOB. Plus, some stores even offer a small discount for reusable bags.

It takes a little extra effort to gather a critical mass of bags and remember to bring them into the store. But companies that used to slap their logo on unwanted keychains and cheap water bottles are finding that putting them on reusable bags is a much better deal. Not only are they helping the BYOB cause, they’re getting their name on something that will be carried around in public and used over and over again.

Thats where a modest bunch of folks from Kope Initiatives come into play. They help companies find economical bag options to promote themselves and help the environment along the way.