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Reported by: Sky Chernauskas Monday, Nov 2, 2009 @01:50pm EST We are starting to see the results re-usable shopping bags are having on the environment.
Corrine Smithgall can think of lots of ways to put her re-usable shopping bags to work. "They're a lot better than the plastic, both for the environment and everything but they last a lot longer and great for so many things," says Smithgall. And they're really catching on. Since 2007 when they first introduced the bags, Wegmans has sold 3 million of them. Norbert Davis, who shops at Wegmans, says, "More and more do, I know most of my family does. My daughters have been using them." And not only do these bags help cut down on the number of plastic bags winding up in the landfill, these are actually made of recycled materials as well. It’s one of three ways Wegmans has been cutting down on plastic bag use. “We also retrained our employees on how to properly pack the bags so we would use fewer bags and we brought in a larger stronger plastic bag that will hold more so we don't have to use as many of the smaller bags,” Jeanne Colleluori of Wegmans says. The results have been big. "We have been able to reduce our plastic bag usage by about 880 million bags since 2007," says Colleluori. And now, they're hoping to save even more with incentives for customers who use the cloth bags. Colleluori says, "Any customer that comes into our store and uses the re-usable bags while they shop, will receive a $1 off coupon for a future purchase.” |