Changing the World One Bag at a Time

The biggest problem with trying to completely eradicate plastic bag usage is that people use their plastic bags for other purposes. Whether it is picking up dog poop or lining a small trash can, many people recycle their plastic bags.

But let me ask you this: How many plastic bags are currently in your cupboard? How many of these plastic bags will never be used? How many plastic bags do you throw away because you already have an abundant stockpile? Ana Lorenzo has found a solution with her company, The Bag Movement .

The Bag Movement is changing the world one bag at a time! Ana Lorenzo suggests taking a five-pack of her reusable bags to the store and when you buy seven or eight bags of groceries, get a couple plastic bags too. This way you will still maintain your plastic bag stockpile, but you will not throw away the excess bags.

The Bags

Ana Lorenzo has engineered a collection of multi-colored, 100% polyester, reusable bags. Each bag is compact enough to roll-up and fit in your pocket, is strong enough to hold 6 two-liter bottles of soda and durable enough to last 20 trips through the washer. A 5-pack of her bags only costs $14.95 (about $2.50 per bag) while her competitors charge upwards of $35 for 5 bags.

The mission of The Bag Movement is not only to help preserve the environment, but also to generate money for charities. 15% of the net proceeds will be donated to good causes. The different colors of the bags represent different charities. Red bags support AIDS and heart disease research. Blue bags sponsor child abuse prevention. Pink bags support breast cancer research, and so forth. Purchasing and using the bags from The Bag Movement is one simple thing you can do to better the world.

The Company

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that somewhere between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Ana Lorenzo realizes how harmful plastic bags are to the environment and wants to do something about it. With this in mind, Ana started The Bag Movement out of her home in September of this year.

She also found that people generally do not like purchasing or using reusable bags because they flaunt unsightly logos. Personally, Ana believes that this defeats the purpose of trying to support a good cause. This is why each of her bags displays an awareness ribbon for the various charities she supports.

Over the past few months, Ana has found some creative ways to raise awareness for The Bag Movement. She has marketed her business with an NBC press release, local magazine advertisements, a home remodeling show and even school fundraisers. Ana described the school fundraising program as a “Triple Whammy” of societal contribution (helping the environment, charities and schools)!

Consumers Should Know

Using reusable bags is one simple thing consumers can do to preserve the environment and help charities. Once you develop the habit of taking your reusable bags to the store, it is easy. Plastic bags are an absolute waste. Over an average life time, each person who replaces plastic bags with reusable bags will save over 22,000 bags from our landfills and oceans.

The Company Outlook

To get off the ground, The Bag Movement started as a for-profit. But with her passion of bettering the world, Ana hopes that her company can afford to be non-profit organization in the future.

Ana Lorenzo could not have started her company at a better time. Several countries around the world have already banned plastic bags including China, Bangladesh, Ireland, Rwanda and some parts of Canada. In 2007, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags and several more U.S. cities are in the process of banning them. Ultimately she hopes that plastic bags will be banned entirely. Until then, Ana Lorenzo and The Bag Movement are well on their way to changing the world one bag at a time.