Plastic bag ban an excuse to show isle style

Designer courtesy photos
Ecolicious large Aloha tote, $26 at Whole Foods Market, Global Village Kailua, Hawaii State Art Museum gift shop, and at First Break Waikiki in the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, or online at ecolicioushawaii.com.

BY NADINE KAM

Don’t think of the bag ban as taking away your plastic. Positive thinkers would suggest it’s an excuse to introduce more style to your shopping excursions.

Hawaii will be making history July 1 as the first state in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags at the retail and food service checkout counter, beating California, whose summer start date has been put on hold.

What does that mean for you? Not that much.

While many businesses encourage consumers to bring in their own reusable bags, they also want to ease shoppers into living with the new restrictions by swapping their plastic bags for resuse bags available for purchase on site, or paper, compostable or recyclable bags.

Finding a plastic-like bag should be no problem, so you can put your bag hoarding to rest.
But, that doesn’t mean you should ignore the spirit of the law, which is to be mindful of reducing waste. Environmentalists warn of the danger of getting comfortable with compostable bags that also don’t break down easily and add to refuse piles and ocean pollution. So it’s important to start getting into the habit of conserving resources, which becomes easier when you have more stylish options.

Here are a few local designer options:

Reyn’s small Spooner Kloth Crimson Floral Bag, $16. Ten percent of proceeds from the company’s Eco Bags will be donated to support the Hawaii Wildlife Fund.

Laura Noda’s Reusables For Life bags sell for $9.99 to $24. She will have a pop-up store at the Menehune Mac Chocolate Factory, 707, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 11.

Ecolicious “Light and Shadow” book bag is $22. Founders Dexter Doi and and Carol D’Angelo donate a portion of sales to Sustainable Coastlines, which encourages individuals and communities to care for the coastlines through beach cleanup events.

 A Mu’umu’u Heaven tote, available at Hana Hou Vintage, 35 Kainehe St. in Kailua, along with the Deb Mascia’s vintage shop’s own totes, like the one below.

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Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage is in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.