School Gets Greener on Earth Day

Paper or plastic? The Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Dean’s Office is proposing a contemporary answer to that tired question: reusable grocery bags bearing the school’s name and the message “Green at heart since 1912.”

The bags will be available in the lobby of the school of public health, 1440 Canal St, on Earth Day (Apr. 22, 2008) from 10 a.m. to noon while supplies last. Faculty, students and staff who want to wear their green hearts on their grocery bags are limited to one free bag per person. The bags also can be purchased from the Dean’s office in suite 2430 for $2.50 each.

“One of the ‘mantras’ of public health is that we should model the behaviors that we want people to practice. Schools of public health must lead by example to improve environmental health,” observed associate professor of environmental health sciences Charles Miller, who was not involved in developing the bags.

The concept of a reusable grocery bag featuring the school originates with the office of the dean. Katie Bowler, senior program manager for communications, developed the tagline and implemented the bag production and distribution while Sarah Chesnutt, Global Health designer, created the art.

“The idea came about from the growing popularity and need for reusable bags, especially since Whole Foods will no longer offer plastic bags as of Earth Day this year, and other stores are likely to follow suit. We thought it a cute, progressive solution to the growing need for reusable products,” said Bowler, who expects the bags will also be used for student recruitment and other promotional activities.

Reusable bags help improve the environment in a number of ways, according to Miller. “It takes energy and money to produce, transport  and dispose of bags. A reusable bag is made, transported and degraded once per many cycles of your purchases, whereas one-time use bags have a financial, energetic and environmental cost every time you purchase something,” he explained. “Making, transporting and disposing of plastic bags introduces long-lived pollutants into the environment. Making, transporting and disposing or classically recycling paper bags also pollutes the water and air.”

In the United States, shoppers carry approximately 100 billion plastic bags out of stores every year. Twelve million barrels of oil are needed to make that many plastic grocery bags, according to the Washington Post. Less than one percent of those bags are recycled. In contrast, every reusable bag has the potential to prevent the use of 1,000 plastic bags. For a brief description of the life cycles of paper and plastic bags, visit the Washington Post website. - Madeline Vann

April 18, 2008