Reusable Shopping Bags

The early 2000s brought about innovative ideas to be greener in your home, at work, even at the grocery store. Enter the reusable shopping bag.

Reusable shopping bags are “a type of bag that can be reused many times; this is an alternative to single-use paper or plastic bags. It is often made from fabric such as canvas, woven synthetic fibers, or a thick plastic that is more durable than disposable plastic bags, allowing multiple uses.”
Although paper bags are not only recyclable but will biodegrade in approximately 1 month, some feel that the added cost to stores will keep stores from implementing a "paper bags only" policy.

Stores like Kroger, the second largest nationwide grocery store chain behind only Wal-Mart Supercenters, and Safeway attempted to entice customers to bring their own bags when shopping and gave a discount at the register for each reusable bag they brought in. The discount usually ranged from $0.03 to $0.05.

This practice has been adopted by other stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s but has been discontinued by others, including Kroger and Safeway. A spokesman for Kroger related that the store didn’t specifically notice a significant increase in customers bringing in their own bags to enjoy the discount.

Equally as notable, however, was that even though the stores discontinued the discount, it didn’t deter customers from continuing to bring their own shopping bags.

The desire to be green and positively impact the environment outweighs the savings of a few cents per bag brought to the store.

Do your part to create a greener environment by finding ways around your home, workplace, and community to reduce the amount of new products needed by reusing what you already have available.

For more information on recyclable items visit www.wasteawaygroup.com.

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