Last week, I attended a great webinar hosted by Green Business Owner on plastic bag reduction strategies for businesses and communities. Scott Cooney hosted the webinar along with Priti Ambani, Managing Editor at Ecopreneurist and Sustainability Consultant at GreenDen Consultancy, and Suzette Bergeron of Bulletin Bag.

The strategies they're talking about aren't how to get folks to use fewer bags but how to get individuals, businesses, and local officials on board with an all-out single use plastic bag ban, and I have to say it was a really inspiring talk.

It looked at Hawaii as a case study. I'm sure by now you've read that Hawaii was the first state in the U.S. to ban plastic bags, but the way it happened was really fascinating and kind of empowering! Activists couldn't get a state ban through, so they took the fight to the local level and banned the bag one county at a time. Honolulu County was the last one to sign on, and now Hawaii effectively has the state-wide plastic bag ban that the people wanted without having to deal with state government and all of its bureaucracy.

Scott compiled the slides and the talk into a 15 minute video that you can check out right here:

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by Plastic Pollution