Seattle is considering a $.20 fee for grocery shoppers who use paper or plastic bags. We all know the paper/plastic bags aren’t the most environment friendly. When I grocery shop, if I have just a few items, I’ll pass on the plastic. If I do use plastic bags, I save them and reuse them as shower caps when I’m deep conditioning my hair or as garbage bags when I’m tossing my trash. I’m not a fan of fees, but I think this new proposal in Seattle is kinda neat. If people use reusable grocery bags, they will be fee free.
What do you think? Do you think think there should be a fee charged for people who don’t bring reusable grocery bags to the store? Do you think this is a ploy to get money from the little person? Do you use paper, plastic or cloth grocery bags?
UPDATE: Reader Savvy asked if a person brought in a plastic bag, would he or she still get the fee? I called Lori Patrick, a Seattle spokeswoman, and she said the person would not be charged for bringing in his or her own plastic bag.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I have no problem with it. Growing up in Canada there was a grocery store that charged .05 per bag. People learned to bring their own!
Gee whiz must we be charged for everything…lol. I guess .20 isn’t that horrible but it can add up before you know it. If this ever comes to NY I will just have to deal with it but where is the money going? Is the money going to help the environment or in the pocket of the store owner?????
Product Junkie Diva
I do think money can be a great motivator. However, do you still get charged $0.20 if you bring your own plastic bags?
Twiggers-Good stuff
PJD-The money would be carved up. The 20-cent fee per bag would be divvied up – 5 cents for the retailer, 15 cents for the city. But retailers grossing less than $1 million a year will keep the entire 20-cent fee.
Savvy-You’d make a great editor. I’m going to sniff around and find that answer for you.
When I lived in France, that’s how it was often done. You always brought your own grocery bag or you had to pay the .20 cents or so for theirs. But I think the opposite should apply. You should get a discount for bringing your own bag. That way it’s not such a money grab and it’s a bigger incentive to go green.
I’m with Jasmine. When I bring my own bag I feel as if I should be asking for a discount for the plastic bags I am using. Ditto those “self-scan” stations. If a business is not spending money on a cashier and bagger, then the customer should get an equivalent discount. No discount, no using the self scan. As for the bags, stores should not just say bring your bag they should consider the savings in cost, transportation, storage, tc. and give it at the cash register — just like those you spent $30 on groceries, but because it was all our specials and/or have our preferred customer card, you “saved” 50 cents. : )
Well one regional grocery retailer near where I live, BI-LO, is offering a discount if you bring your own bags, but not all cashiers are aware and it doesn’t always gets applied. I started using cloth bags for groceries about a year ago for the environment, but I do like it when I get the small discount. It’s peanuts, but it’s a benefit to me. Plus Aldi’s, a local discounter, already charges for plastic bags here. I think it’s a trend that will start picking up.
Jasmine/Lou: You all bring up really great points. As a frugalist, I should have highlighted them in the post. But then again, that’s why you are valuable commenters!
Tameika-Thanks for the input. Here is the link for Bi-Lo:
http://www.bi-lo.com/bilo/home/storeLocator/storeLocator.jsp
They are in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee
Lord Almighty, the biggest annoyance of my gig at IKEA was the fact we charged for bags, and people got all entitled about it. Had one woman say she was going to call her Congressional Representative because I wouldn’t give her a bag. Another woman threw the coins she needed for a bag and bounced them off the back of my head.
The money IKEA collects (a nickel a bag) is directly donated to the American Forest Foundation. And there are huge signs all over the cash lanes announcing this. Seriously, it severely eroded my faith in humanity.
Someone mentioned making reusable bags out of t-shirts, I’m going to fiddle around with a needle and thread this week and post my results on my blog.
I like my own bags anyway.. I feel strange asking for plastic bags when I can carry my own
Mary Sue, go to marthastewart.com and check out the video on making a T-shirt bag. I saw that bit a few months ago; it’s great. I’ve been meaning to try it to make beach bags for the kids. They would be much lighter than some of the ones out there.
Always use my own bag. Much stronger than the plastic ones and better for the environment. In Taiwan, most grocery and other stores do not even have bags available; it is standard practice for people to bring their own whenever they plan on purchasing something.
Here in San Diego, several stores offer five cents off for each bag you bring in for re-use, instead of taking a new one. In our household, we keep a bag in each car filled with about 4 or 5 other bags (either paper or cloth), and we get a little reward each time we shop for using our own bags. Also, Peets Coffee offers a 25 cent discount for reusing the bag for a pound of coffee beans.
It’s not a lot of money — but I love getting a little reward for having remembered to reuse instead of inflicting the cost of yet another plastic or paper bag on our environment. Re-use is even better, environmentally speaking, than recycling, and keeping a supply of bags on hand for re-use allows us to give the best response to the “paper or plastic?” question, which is “Neither!”
One local store offers either a nickel off or a wooden nickel that you can then deposit in one of a number of plexiglass boxes, each marked for a selected local charity. That store is also going to stop offering plastic bags altogether, since these seem to find their way, all too often, to the roadsides and landscape instead of the recycle bin or even the landfill.
I have one cool bag my mother made out of denim — the inside has a layer that has stitching to create deep pockets that are perfect for slipping in a wine bottle or similer item, so when I use that bag, I slip all the bottles into these pockets, and they are protected from rattling around and breaking. I also have some plainer canvas bags – I turned one inside out to see how it’s made, and it’s very simple — it’s essentially a rectangle with reinforced stitching and handles; easy to make. The best one has a little diagonal stitch across the two bottom corners to create a defined bottom for the bag.
Whole Foods will give you a .10 cent credit for each bag you DO NOT use and they are planning to disconinue offering plastic bags as an option. They will even give you one free Whole Foods bag to get started. We need more incentive plans like this to get people behind the idea.
The fabric bags my favorite grocery store sells for $1 hold way more than either the paper or plastic ones! It took a while to remember to bring them along to the store every time, but I’ve fully trained myself now. I stash my coupons in there, too, so there’s no chance I’ll forget them at home.