The Question

Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:30:16 -0800 (PST)
From: jenni kempf <jennikempf@yahoo.com>

Greetings:

Although this question is not monitoring specific, I thought I would ask all of you River Experts about purchasing bulk trash bags for River Clean-Ups.

We go through about 1200 per year and are shopping around for the best deal on bags. We would prefer to buy bags with recycled content, but in the research I have done so far, the bags with recycled content seem to be thinner than the industry standard.

Does anyone have a recommendation?

jenni kempf
Friends of the Fox River
Crystal Lake, IL

Responses

Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:43:05 -0800 (PST)
From: Kelly Stettner <blackrivercleanup@yahoo.com>

Try linking your event with a larger one, like American Rivers' National River Cleanup Week. I found that my watershed council has an annual cleanup event for which they have trash bags printed; both of these options supply me with free bags and a terrific network of support.
Or try asking around some local "clean" businesses to see if they have anything you can use; I found a soy candle company that stored their waste wax in large, heavy-duty trash bags. When they had emptied 50 or so, I went and picked them up. The bonus was that our smelly river trash adopted a lovely fragrance!
Cheers,
Kelly Stettner

Black River Action Team (BRAT)
45 Coolidge Road
Springfield, VT 05156

Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:14:10 -0600
From: Chris Riggert <Chris.Riggert@mdc.mo.gov>

Hi Jenni, I can’t send an attachment to the ListServe, but if you contact me, I can forward you the list of companies we have used for the Missouri Stream Team’s Stash Your Trash Program. Most of the bags we get are a mesh bag for floaters to use while enjoying our Missouri streams. However, we also have a larger version for stream clean ups, as well as a 3 ml plastic bag large enough to use in a 55 gallon trash can. I can tell you since we are a state agency, the suppliers are based in Missouri (all are out of St. Louis, I believe).
We get a pretty good price on these, but most of this is because of the quantities we get every year. For example, we provide over 300,000 of the red mesh bags…mostly to the businesses in the floating industry. But the larger mesh bag, and poly bags go to our volunteers while conducting their stream clean ups.
Thanks!
Chris
Christopher M. Riggert
Stream Team Program
Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Coordinator
Missouri Department of Conservation
P.O. Box 180
2901 W. Truman Blvd.
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180
Phone: (573) 522-4115 ext. 3167
Fax: (573) 526-0990
Chris.Riggert@mdc.mo.gov
www.mostreamteam.org

Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:10:37 -0800
From: Erick Burres <eburres@waterboards.ca.gov>

Jenni,
One of the groups out here in Southern California stopped using single
use bags for their clean ups. They use recycled content bags. The
collected trash is put into a dumpster and the bag is reused.
Save Our Beach
PO Box 1014
Seal Beach, CA 90740
Phone 562 884-6764
Fax (877) 222-6345
kim@saveourbeach.org

You can also try: http://www.wecarebags.com
Janet Price, Account Executive - Sales
(213) 300-8001 Direct
WE CARE Media
Division of EZ Products International LLC *California ??? Arizona ???
Arkansas ??? Florida**
866.578.0682 Phone and fax
Sincerely,
Erick Burres
Citizen Monitoring Coordinator
SWRCB-SWAMP-Clean Water Team

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