Loblaws charging for plastic bags
I had to run a few errands today and couldn't help but notice the amount of people using cloth bags at the Superstore. Out of all the people I saw, only one person was using plastic and he looked like an old man who was very set in his ways and just not ready to make a change. I think it's a wonderful idea to charge the nominal fee for the plastic bags as that seems to be all the motivation most people need. I think many people intended to switch over to the reusable kind, but just never "got around to it". Having that little bit added on to your grocery bill is incentive enough to finally get around to doing it.
According to research, stores that charge this nominal fee for the plastic bags use 55% less bags than those stores that don't charge. The company had another promotion they tried which was to offer a rebate to customers who brought their own plastic bags to use but this incentive led to only a small drop of 4% in plastic bag use.
I also noticed during this errand run that other people seemed to be checking out their fellow customers to see if they were using their cloth bags. I think people will start to openly frown on others who use plastic and it may become rather "uncool" to leave a grocery store with a cart full of plastic bags!
It's a small step in becoming green, but if everyone does it, it then becomes a BIGGER step and makes a difference. Props to Loblaws and other companies for putting the incentive in motion. And props to those customers who are taking the initiative and going green a little bit at a time!