Plastic bags are certainly in the news these days in Portland. So, we thought it was a good time to talk about these darned things.

• Kaboodle's plastic bags are both recyclable and commercially compostable. And they've been that way for over 2 years, well before the new, much-publicized, standards were unveiled by the city of Portland last week.
• For over 2 years our bags have met the ASTM D6400 standard for composting, the standard the city wants to put in place in 2012. Click here to find out what that means in plain English. But, we feel this is still not enough.
• Kaboodle's next bags, coming soon, will add one more feature; they will be made entirely of post-consumer recycled material. And still, they will remain both recyclable and commercially compostable.
• Our bags are not made of corn-based plastic. Corn-based plastic is easily biodegradable, but it contaminates the recycling stream. Plus, it turns a valuable food crop into industrial material. Our bags are made of conventional materials, with the addition of an additive that renders the plastic biodegradable, but does not make it unfit for recycling. The creator of this additive is ECM Biofilms.

Of course, there is no perfect material for bags. Paper bags are in some ways, particularly from the standpoint of pollution and energy consumption, worse than plastic. So, there is no magic bullet, other than to use fewer bags of all kinds or switch to a multi-use bag for shopping.

With that thought in mind, Kaboodle is soliciting your help. We want to have a multi-use bag available in our stores, to help cut down on the use of disposable bags. You know what we're talking about, the semi-permanent bags you can buy at grocery stores and other places for all your shopping needs.

We need ideas from you on what our bag should be, the size, the materials, the look, etc. We know you have good ideas and interesting opinions that will expand our limited horizons and come up with something useful. So, we invite you to head over to our Facebook page and give us your input on what a Kaboodle multi-use bag should be.