Marks & Spencer starts charging for plastic bags

Marks & Spencer, the UK based department store, started charging customers 5 pence (10 cents) for every plastic bag they use (via Treehugger). So far they've seen an 80% reduction in plastic bag use- that's 70 million fewer bags already! Money raised by the surcharge will be used to improve parks and play areas across the UK.

Between 500 billion to a trillion plastic bags are used every year, so we think it's fantastic that our neighbors across the sea have found a way to significantly reduce plastic bag waste.

If you have plastic bags and want to recycle them, find a place near you through plasticbagrecycling.org or even better bring your own to the store! Envirosax's graphic series or Baggu's super bright totes are our picks!

Envirosax:


Baggu:

International Graphic Design Competition

Designboom is holding their 2nd annual International Graphic Design Competition.

Pairing up with Tobu Department Store, the competition is in an effort to raise awareness and protect the Earth.

Enter in either of 2 competitions- and the first place winner gets 500,000 yen and will have their winning design used for Tobu Department Store's promotional material. See all the details here.

Check out last year's 2nd place winner (our favorite!) by naoya yoko + jun tashiro (agasuke) from japan below.

Also check out some of the other runner's up from last year here.

Product designer- Peter Marigold

Split shelves by Peter Marigold. A product designer based out of London, these shelves are based on a simple geometric principle:

'The inverted angles of a shape split into pieces will always add up to 360 degrees.The angles can be interchanged but will always form a whole.'

You can listen to is interview for Wallpaper here.

Spoons

via Red Red Day

Eco-activist Summer Rayne Oakes in Sublet!

We were so excited to see eco-activist and host, Summer Rayne Oakes wearing Sublet! Check out her post (here) at the LOHAS conference, giving a call-out to Sublet and wearing the Alison dress.

Smart, gorgeous and with a good sense of humor, Summer is an entomologist and environmental scientist by training and a prominent voice involving environmental issues in the fashion industry.

She's currently is a host in the new Planet Green TV, (if only we had TV!) and advisory board member of LOHAS. You can find out more about Summer and her involvement with the green movement via her website here. Keep up the good work, we love you!

We're on Glamour's eco-friendly shopping guide!

We were thrilled to find out that both the Anne and the Alison are being featured on Glamour's eco-friendly shopping guide! The Anne was the first one on the slide show- what a nice surprise to wake up to this morning!

Artist Chris Jordan's Ted.com talk

Ever since we saw his work featured in GOOD magazine, we've been fans of artist Chris Jordan's photography. Since then, we've had the pleasure of seeing his pieces in person and we just found his talk on Ted.com where he gives insight into his work. Enjoy!

p.s. Ted.com is pretty amazing in its own right!