Banning Plastic Bags in Super Markets

Very recently, California governor Edmund Brown signed a bill “that bans plastic shopping bags, making California the first U.S. state to officially prohibit stores from handing them out for free.” Consumers in California now must use reusable bags to shop without paying extra money for plastic bags.

If you are interested in reading more, click the link for the article: Breaking: California Becomes First State to Ban Plastic Bags 

 

The Process of the 1st Pick’n Run Backpack

It has been 7 months since the first cut on the fabric has begun. Progress is coming along. The first two due dates has past: April 15 2015 and June 30 2015. Measurements had to be precise, sewing took patients (both hand and machine), and ideas came flowing in from my dad, friends, and my understanding. I am adding new accessories to the bag bit-by-bit. Very soon, I will start all over for the second prototype with new materials to use and different  ideas to solve flaws of the current bag.

Here are the April 15 requirements with color code of completion:
(Green for meeting requirement, Yellow for half meeting requirement, and Red for not meeting requirement)

Tight, doesn’t move when running
Easy to pick-up trash
Easy to empty trash
With replaceable linear 

Here are a few pictures of the first test run (sorry for not having pictures of the making):

 

With one of the requirements not met, I worked on the linear with an elastic mechanism that allows runners/walkers/trail runners to pull the linear out to put trash in and let the elastic straps pull the linear back in. It was all thanks to a friend of mine and John’s (my father) who suggested the idea. I founded a problem that I made while making the mechanism: the linear will not keep its form and the straps are not pulling back the linear to its original placement. There are other flaws that I need to fix that has to do with the bag’s structure. So far, I do have a few  ideas to fix that.

Now, here are the June 30 requirements:

Comfortable to run with; light
Easy to put on and take off

Below are the photos of the accessories:

As you can see of my work, I ran into problems in making the elastic mechanism work. One of them is making the elastic straps strong enough to pull the linear back and the other is making sure that putting and taking off the bag would be easy with the cushion.
As I said before, I found some ways to fix those flaws. Since the next due date is August 31, it is a perfect time to start all over and make the next prototype better. I will keep you all updated on the bag progress along the way. Thank you for staying in tune and keep on cleaning the world through running.