Promotional plastic bags may be getting a “bad rap.” A growing number of business owners, particularly retailers, are shying away from using plastic shopping bags in their stores. This phenomenon is largely in response to a new awareness of the environment and is an effort to reduce the amount of plastic that goes into local landfills.
Unfortunately, promotional plastic bags are often unfairly targeted as culprits of pollution. While it’s true that many plastics, including plastic shopping bags, do not break down in an environmentally friendly manner, plastic shopping bags actually represent a very small percentage of the plastics that end up in landfills.
In fact, evidence suggests that the amount of plastic in landfills in areas where plastic shopping bags have been banned has not decreased significantly. In some places it has even increased.
Promotional shopping bags have long been a staple of many businesses’ advertising efforts. Grocery stores are the most visible and common example of plastic bags being an integral part not only of advertising but of day to day operations and customer service.
Providing promotional plastic bags to shoppers used to be considered a vital aspect of attentive customer service. Not to do so would have been a major inconvenience to most customers, particularly in grocery stores where a majority of shoppers purchase numerous items at one time.
Retailers who are reluctant to remove plastic shopping bags from their stores, but don’t want to contribute to global warming: take heart. It is unnecessary to stop investing in promotional plastic bags to reduce your carbon footprint. You can continue to offer this important service to your customers while still encouraging conservation and responsibility by doing these four things:
1) Create an in-store recycling program: Provide a place in your store where customers can bring in their old plastic shopping bags for recycling.
2) Charge a small per-bag fee: Customers who really want bags don’t mind paying a few cents for them. Those who don’t want to pay will be happy to bring their own bags from home. Use the fees that you collect to implement a bag recycling program, use them to purchase carbon offset credits, or donate the money collected to an environmental project or group.
3) Encourage customers to re-use your bags: Offer an incentive, such as a small discount, to customers who bring back your plastic shopping bags for re-use in your store.
4) Educate your customers about other ways to re-use plastic shopping bags: For instance, many people re-use them at home as garbage bags. Encouraging customers to find other uses for them means fewer end up in landfills.
While some locales have banned plastic bags, leaders in more areas agree that a total ban does more harm than good. It’s far better, most believe, to educate the local public about prudent use of plastic shopping bags. In the end, they believe that it leads to fewer of them in the landfill. Business owners, therefore, can continue to supply their customers with promotional plastic bags confidently as part of their advertising campaigns and customer service programs.
