Shopping Bags

Hello -

Back in the late 1980s I spent some time in Switzerland. You were charged per bag if you used either paper or plastic. Therefore, people recycled plastic bags and brought their own cloth bags or boxes. Currently, in South Alabama, a grocery retailer called Winn Dixie has cloth bags for sale. A regional book retailer, Books-A-Million, was giving away free bags with store membership. Less traditional grocers like small health food stores have for years made cloth bags available. People love bags and there is no end to the type and size that are available. Getting people to use the bags for regular grocery shopping is the challenge - therefore an incentive for a retailer to make them available.

Lee

Dear Herb and Collegues

We are slowly but surely developing a comprehensive program to transition from HDPE / Kraft paper shopping bags to reusable bags of various kinds in Ithaca NY and Tompkins County (our upstate NY county). We are undertaking this project with many different approaches: Tabling at public events advertising the use of reusable bags -- education of the public is key Articles / interviews in local media -- get out as much information as possible Partnering with our county Solid Waste Department and Environmental Management Council to promote the notion of reusable bags to local businesses and governmental bodies Offering a wide variety of reusable bag solutions--cotton bags, plastic shopping baskets, non-woven polypropylene bags (around $1-$1.25 ea.), and various hand-made bags made from T-shirts, refashioned materials, recycled materials, etc., etc. Everything under the sun. [Note: There is a serious social justice issue that must be addressed. Sure, it would be nice if everyone could afford lovingly crafted, organic cotton shopping bags that cost $15-20 each, but there are many poor folks, especially in communities of color, that can't afford such luxury items. They can afford the 99 cent non-woven poly bags, however, so we have been supplying these bags as well as the higher end cotton bags.] Eventual legislation and the City and County levels banning the plastic and Kraft paper bags We have many models to follow--San Francisco CA, Victoria AU, and others. Do some Web research and you will get lots of hits on reusable shopping bag solutions. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Have a wonderful day.
Tom

Tom Shelley
118 E. Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 342-0864
[email protected]
http://www.myspace.com/99319958

Back in the late 1980s I spent some time in Switzerland. You were charged per bag if you used either paper or plastic. Therefore, people recycled plastic bags and brought their own cloth bags or boxes.

Hi Lee, In the UK, as well as having the usual flimsy plastic bags, several grocery stores also offer to sell one a "bag for life", which is a very substantial, strong plastic carrier bag, and isn't at all expensive. The fact that one has paid for it is itself an incentive to remember to bring it next time. Moreover, should it break, the store will replace it for free.

Elizabeth Griffin
(Victoria, Canada)

While this wasn't my initiated discussion, I'm still curious on a number of things. Here in the states many shoppers do a high volume purchase once or twice a week, filling a cart and using many bags. There would need to be incentive for these people to bring multiple bags with them to the store. Here in the states, the Great Depression and WWII created generations of people that appreciated the reuse of items. We've lost that appreciation and are quite a big disposable society. How do we get these people to reuse their plastic bags or take advantage of other items offered to them (i.e. cloth bags). If the original poster wants a municipality to encourage retailers to provide cloth bags, how in turn are you going to get the public to use them for the intended purpose?

Lee Yokel
Environmental Education Coordinator
Environmental Education Network
Gulf of Mexico Alliance
Listserv http://www.disl.org/mailman/listinfo/gomaeen
Dauphin Island Sea Lab
101 Bienville Blvd
Dauphin Island, AL 36528
(251) 861-8201
(251) 861-7421
fax [email protected]
GOMA working website: http://www2.nos.noaa.gov/gomex/ http://www.dep.state.fl.us/gulf/

Hi Lee,

Here in the States, the Great Depression and WWII created generations of people that appreciated the reuse of items. We've lost that appreciation and are quite a big disposable society. How do we get these people to reuse their plastic bags or take advantage of other items offered to them (i.e. cloth bags). If the original poster wants a municipality to encourage retailers to provide cloth bags, how in turn are you going to get the public to use them for the intended purpose?

There are two issues here. One is treated in McKenzie-Mohr's "Fostering Sustainable Behaviour", viz.: in order to effect a behaviour change, you (we) have to make the desired behaviour attractive and to make the present habits much less so (e.g. by removing the option for free flimsy plastic bags, charging for them), AND explaining why it is important to think twice about using disposables for everything imaginable. The other is that flimsy plastic bags are not in themselves the real concern, so it is important to avoid making that one matter the sole focus. A cradle-to-grave analysis of the environmental cost of producing cloth or other fabric bags that stand multiple re-uses shows that, *per unit*, the former are cheap in every sense. It's what they represent that is at stake, and because this is an almost everyday encounter with unnecessary waste it is a handy point to attack. As you point out, the more prudent mentality has slipped, and the ready availability of disposables has egged on that slippage. The anti-plastic-bag campaign is a quick way to engage much of the shopping public in environmental dialogues, and thereby to get people thinking. It is only then, that they may try to act positively without prompts.

Elizabeth Griffin

Safeway sells reusable shopping bags for 99 cents. They are large and have good handles.

Marion Huxtable

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi sponsored the San Francisco shopping bag ban; he might have further info for you;

[email protected]
City Hall 1
Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244
San Francisco, Ca 94102-4689
(415) 554-7630 - voice
(415) 554-7634 - fax
Associated articles:
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8929506
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/28/MNGDROT5QN1.DTL

Best,
Jess

Jessica Sand
Principal
http://www.roughstockstudios.com
Roughstock Studios
PO Box 460010
San Francisco, CA 94146
p (415) 515-9308
f (415) 643-4896

This one is easy. Americans respond very well to economic prompts. We need to get the stores to charge for the bags. Alternatively, but less effectively, a credit for bags provided in lieu of using store-provided bags would also work. Some would argue that stores can't afford to do this if their competitors do not do so also. I don't buy this argument. In our area (Ithaca, NY), Aldi's charges for bags. Customers don't complain; they know it is part of the cost-saving philosophy of the store. I think it could be sold to the general public in the same way. Why should the environmentally conscious pay a penalty for the insensitive and profligate habits of other shoppers? The campaign should be promoted as rewarding "green" behavior.

Joel

I grew up in Britain in an age where everyone used shopping bags and the only shop which used material to wrap product was the butcher. Meat was wrapped in brown waxed paper and tied with string. Fish, the green grocer, the fish and chip shop used newspaper and rarely, brown paper bags for particular items. Though the "chippie" (fish and chip shop) did have some kind of paper that the fish and chips was laid against inside the newspaper. The shopper with bags over her (usually a woman in my childhood) arm was a commonplace and unremarkable sight. This integral mode of recycling was simply a part of life and even today, in my mind, fish and chips still tastes the best when eaten out of a newspaper wrapped bundle. My personal belief is that there will be the tipping point - when enough people see enough other people using life time bags the pendulum swings. We can hasten that with both incentives and punitive measures (so many cents off if you bring your own bag; pay for using the store un-recyclable bags; municipalities offering incentives such as their own cool re-useable bags as part of a promotion campaign) but never underestimate the power of example. I watch the students in my class move from showing up with their Tim Horton's coffee in "disposable" (and what a misleading term that is) cups to travel mugs over the course of the semester till by the end of the semester there are NO disposable coffee cups in the garbage can at the end of my class. I make no comment throughout. (And yes, you read that right - into garbage cans. My university, wanting to claim the sobriquet the Canada's Green University) has a lousy recycling program.)

Theresa Healy, Ph.d.

Adjunct Professor;
School of Environmental Planning and Gender Studies

My biggest complaint about plastic shopping bags is the enormous litter that they generate. When we do a creek cleanup, the number of plastic bags is disgusting. Although they do not degrade quickly, they rip easily and are very annoying to try to clean up. I think we should get rid of them for this reason.

Danny Kocurek
Arlington Conservation Council

Have you ever tried to use your own personal bags at a store like Walmart or Meijers? At the end of the checkout conveyor there is a carousel of plastic bags that makes it virtually impossible to use your own bags. If you want to really frustrate the people behind you, and the checker, use your own anyway. This really slows things down! For this reason, and several others, I simply choose to not shop at those kind of stores.

David B. Wilcoxen

Associate Director
Division of Safety & Compliance
Facilities & Services
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1501 S. Oak St.
Champaign, IL 61820
217-333-3655

Part of the bag problem comes from the retailers. I try to bag my own at the grocery store so I won't have only one or two items per bag. Changing how they train the baggers would go a long way towards decreasing plastic bag use. Or changing their thinking about always immediately bagging items without asking if you want a bag (ever said, "I don't need that bagged" and have them take the item out of the bag and throw the bag away? Makes me crazy!) Don't put the whole onus for change on the consumer! And as for the reusable bags that don't work with the automatic plastic bag dispensers, maybe people designing reusable bags need to keep that in mind and make them so they will quickly fit onto that dispenser to be filled. It would be much easier to use them if they were propped open for filling (most I've seen do not have flat bottoms allowing them to stand on their own). Find the plastic bag dispenser manufacturer and talk to them about designing reusable bags that would work with their dispensers. You go to the check out, hand the clerk a neat stack of bags, they slip them onto the dispenser, and voila! Everyone's happy.

Laurie J. Tenace

Florida Department of Environmental Protection
PH: (850) 245-8759
[email protected]

I have found a simple way to use my personal bags with minimal disturbance to other shoppers and checkers -- after all, the point is not to irritate people, just to quietly do what we think is right -- right? If you're using one of the self-check stations, just place your items on the carousel, and bag them after you're done. It's much easier to figure out the best way to pack things if you have them all together. If you're having the checker do it, have them put things back in the cart loose, and bag them yourself after you've paid. As far as Walmart, I'm sorry for people who don't have an alternative, but we've been able to keep them at bay here in our part of Oregon, and I never have to shop there...

vb

Laurie Tenace wrote: Part of the bag problem comes from the retailers. I try to bag my own at the grocery store so I won't have only one or two items per bag. Changing how they train the baggers would go a long way towards decreasing plastic bag use. Or changing their thinking about always immediately bagging items without asking if you want a bag (ever said, "I don't need that bagged" and have them take the item out of the bag and throw the bag away? Makes me crazy!) Don't put the whole onus for change on the consumer!

I have had the experience described (having the item removed from the bag and the bag discarded) and indeed, it is very irritating, but I have more often been in line with someone who has asked the clerk to remove items from bags "because that will be too heavy" and add bags. With the bags free, there is no incentive to minimize bag use. Only a bag charge will address this abuse. And as for the reusable bags that don't work with the automatic plastic bag dispensers, maybe people designing reusable bags need to keep that in mind and make them so they will quickly fit onto that dispenser to be filled. It would be much easier to use them if they were propped open for filling (most I've seen do not have flat bottoms allowing them to stand on their own). Find the plastic bag dispenser manufacturer and talk to them about designing reusable bags that would work with their dispensers. You go to the check out, hand the clerk a neat stack of bags, they slip them onto the dispenser, and voila! Everyone's happy. In our area (Ithaca, NY), Wegman's sells for 99 cents heavy woven plastic bags that come with grommets in the right places to hang on the bag dispensers. They are as easy for the clerks to fill as the flimsy throw-away bags are. They don't seem to be used by very many shoppers as of yet, however. I think the additional encouragement of charging for the throw-aways is needed.

Joel

All,

I've followed the whole "bag wars" discussion here and in other areas for many months now noting the rare mention of "shopping bins" as longer lived alternatives to other means of carting goods home. Ok, so it doesn't work well if one is also employing self-propelled transportation, but for that there's sturdy back packs! Fifteen to twenty years ago, a grocery outlet in south-central Ontario, Knob Hill Farms, had nothing available for use but plastic bins that you paid something like $1.50 for each on your way into the store. Shoppers would leave the store with multiple bins, and of course, having the investment in the bin, return there to shop again because you could also be refunded if you brought back bins but didn't intend to use them. The stores ceased operation sometime in the mid 1990's. Since then I have used my 4 or 5 "Knob" bins for toys, carting goods in the car, as clothes hampers, for storage, for moving, for camping and beaching, for groceries and many, many other purposes, including moving the children whose toys used to be in them! I still have two bins in use today and wish I could find a stash in order to give them out freely to end this ridiculous myth that goods must go into single use plastic bags. The best $1.50 I ever spent! Loblaws and other grocery chains have similar baskets and bins available - buy them, use them at every store you shop in. I've had many a comment directed my way over the years, particularly in 'bag your own' grocery places about how quickly and 'efficiently' I am loaded up and gone. I have to admit to having been probably a little too incredulous when clerks AUTOMATICALLY put large items, with built in handles, into plastic bags at check outs - for my convenience! I have to consciously work at toning down my reaction. In fact lately I've taken to suggesting that "if you save your employer a little bit with every order perhaps they will reward you with better pay". Of course there's no way of measuring the impact of my actions, but I take heart that I've done no further harm each time I use my bin or refuse a bag.

Judy Gilchrist-Gibbens

Manager,
Member Services and Communications
Green Communities Canada
P.O. Box 928,
Peterborough, Ontario K9H 7A5
705-745-7479
www.greencommunitiescanada.org

I've read through a number of the discussion boards now and it seems like there's a pretty standard set of ideas that have been tried in a number of places (with some variations):

1. Charge customers for plastic/paper bags
2. Credit customers who bring reusable bags
3. Educate consumers about importance of reusable bags
4. Educate clerks to use fewer bags
5. Provide/sell customers cheap reusable bags
6. Remind customers to bring reusable bags
7. Ban plastic bags altogether

In most of the communities near my home (VT), a lot of stores offer discounts ($0.03 per bag) for bringing reusable bags, most sell very cheap reusable bags ($1 each), and most people are aware that they should be bringing their own - the hassle is just too great and the visible rewards too small. I'm glad the stores offer $0.03 off per bag, but it's not enoguh to matter to most people. It would be great if we could ban plastic bags, get stores to charge for bags, and/or train clerks to minimize use, but there's a lot of resistance to those ideas.

I'm wondering if anyone has any new, creative ideas for increasing the incentives for reusable bags or discouraging use of plastic. How about the "Golden Ticket" idea from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - every day 1 shopper bringing his or her own bags is randomly chosen to get a good prize? Or a punch card that tracks how many times people bring their own bags and rewards them when they reach a certain level? Or putting a "Green Honor Roll" in the newspaper to recognize people who have refused a certain number of plastic bags? Unusual marketing campaigns?

Has anyone tried any of these? What else? We could really use some ideas for strategies that would surprise people and catch their interest!

Rebecca Stone
Senior Associate
Orton Family Foundation
United States

Rebecca Stone: Trader Joe's gives you a raffle ticket to put your name and phone # on every time you bring your own bags in. In theory they award something like $50 every day, but having never won, alas!, I'm not certain what the prize is.

They also have a cool reminder sign posted on the outside of the store in the direction of most of their parking -- says something like "Check your trunk, got your bags?" and also has a pitch for the reusable bags they sell ("If not, why not buy one of these?")

John Gear
United States
http://lovesalem.blogspot.com/

Big stores rely on moving people through their checkouts as quickly as possible. I've noticed that plastic bags and their loading stations/carousels speed baggers up, which means more people can get through a checkout line in the same amount of time. Having customers bring in their own non-standardized bags slows baggers down, which means longer lines, angrier customers, and less money collected per unit time. At least that's what I've observed. Has anyone studied this potential barrier to customers bringing their own bags? Any ideas on how to overcome this barrier?

Mary Morse
City of San Jose
United States
www.sanjoseca.gov/esd/stormwater

Rebecca Stone: Patterning our program after City of Palo Alto we are targeting local stores in Oakland - not the big chains. When they voluntarily promote reusable bags in their store we provide free reusable bags they can sell, free advertising & free technical assistance if they want to develop their own bag. We've partnered with local community agencies to distribute bags and introduce reusable bags to businesses who normally would not be exposed. It's a fairly detailed campaign and if you are interested in the details, let me know and I'll forward them to you.

Wanda Redic
Recycling Specialist
City of Oakland
United States
www.oaklandrecycles.com

Hi Mary-
You bring up a good point about the bag carousels being set up for plastic bags. However, I have seen Wegmans (a grocery store, based out of Rochester, NY with stores in NY, PA, NJ, and VA) create their own bags that fit directly on the bag carousel, completely eliminating this problem! The reusable bags have metal grommets at the top that slip onto the bag carousel, plus these bags come with a removable plastic bottom insert that help keep the bag upright when filling.

Best,
Courtney

Courtney Forrester
United States

Wanda Redic--You wrote:

"It's a fairly detailed campaign and if you are interested in the details, let me know and I'll forward them to you."

I'm working on a program similar to your ordinance in Ithaca NY. Could you please send me your campaign info. Thanks! Tom Shelley [email protected]


tjs1 

Our city is in the process of charging per plastic bag use ($0.25.) Even with our small population of 38,000 we generate a conservative 6 million plastic bags that end up on streets and trees. San Francisco has banned bags and there was big article written on why banning wasnt such a great idea. The Santa Clara County cities are working together to charge per plastic bag, which seems like a more reasonable approach. San Jose, second largest city in California, will be going to the council on Feb.2 to implement the tax on plastic bags. I believe their staff reports are available online and so are ours.

I believe that regulation is the key in this area. People will forget their bags because there is really no consequence to not bringing them. I also think when a city adopts such a policy that it shows local businesses and manufacturers that we dont want their plastic littering our city and filling up our landfills.

On the behavior side, I have seen retailers have drawings for food cards for people who bring in cloth bags and they also accept plastic bags. That was effective for stores that felt environmentally responsible and those are usually the mom and pop businesses.

Morgan Hill, CA


Rebecca Fotu
City of Morgan Hill
United States

Rebecca Fotu: If AB 68 or AB 87 passes, cities with bans or fees in place would not be eligible for funds under the new program. Does that factor in your decision making at all and if not, why? Just curious.

Wanda Redic
Recycling Specialist
City of Oakland
United States
www.oaklandrecycles.com

Reading through the threads, I am surprised to find so little comment on distinguishing between biodegradable (paper) and photodegradable (plastic). I had a discussion with other environmentally minded people who take their own bags to the store about an upcoming plastic bag ban in our city modeled after San Francisco . The issue of plastic bags was just not a major issue for them - until they learned this difference: Plastic bags photodegrade into tiny bits but they never really go away. I also used this fact with my stepdaughter who is almost militantly resisting the change to take your own bags. She also is a hard core once a week to Walmart shopper who brings home lots of bags. Although she never stated this was her barrier to changing to a reusable bag, it was a piece of information that made her willing to "try" to take some bags to see if they would work. Finally, I made a poster on plastic bags for a table at a bazaar, promoting the use of reusable bags - and the slide with this information was the one to receive the most comments and requests for copies.

Bonnie Bowman
Tarrant Coalition for Environmental Awareness
United States

There is a correction to my original post. The Santa Clara county wide effort is for PAPER and plastic and is not a tax but a consumer based fee in which some of the funds would go back to the retailer for administering the program and for the city to clean up litter. San Jose will not be specifically adopting an ordinance that places the consumer based fee on plastic and paper bags, but will provide their comments to the countywide effort, which will surely be a deciding factor for whether they will move forward with further implementation or not. San Jose is also the third largest city in California and is actively pursing many environmental goals that are noteable.

Hopefully, the original request from this tread has been purposefully and sincerely answered as to others perspectives on encouraging behaviors vs. regulation.


Rebecca Fotu
City of Morgan Hill
United States

I am a town councilor in a small, remote community in Canadas arctic. We have a single use plastic shopping bag ban bylaw before us at the moment and Im voting against it with a minority of other councillors.
While I am not opposed to reducing the use of these bags, I have numerous reasons for opposing this bylaw:
- I feel forcing retailers and shoppers to buy or bring their own bags may have a negative effect on fostering sustainable behaviour. I dont think we can change attitudes by holding a gun to the head of the consumer and retailer and, in fact, I feel that imposing this regulation will breed cynicism amoung people who are not yet convinced they need to adopt greener habits, causing an adverse effect.
- Plastic shopping bags account for one half to two per cent of our waste stream. We have no recycling program, no composting program and no strategy for waste reduction. We recently had a methane fire in our dump that took a week and $100,000 to extinguish. I feel our efforts should be concentrated on an over-all waste management strategy or, at least, in other areas that will have a more profound affect on our waste stream, such as composting.
- Retailers are already offering cardboard boxes for shoppers to pack their groceries in. Disposal of cardboard in this remote community has been a major cost for retailers and passing the boxes off to the consumer lessens their cost of disposal and fills our landfill with more methane-producing material. With a bag ban, I can only see this practice increasing.
- I dont want to see retailer charging for bags at the till. The cost of living is exceptionally high in the arctic and I dont want to make it higher.
- Using organic bags take five years to decompose. Use of these corn-based bags will not solve the aesthetic issue of these bags blowing around town or getting stuck in trees.
I have been the lone voice for fostering sustainable behavoiur on this council for four years now and have been met with resistance at every turn. This bylaw is just a cheap and easy way for vote-greedy politicians to appear that they are taking a stand on green issues. The legislation will place all accountability, action and cost on the retailers and consumers. A bag ban bylaw should be our last step in this journey of a thousand miles  not our first.
I would appreciate any feedback you might have on my dilemma.


Terry Halifax
Town of Inuvik
Canada

Hi Terry,

I agree that the problem you have is bigger than plastic shopping bags.

I'd suggest an amendment to put off the decision for 6 months or 1 year, during which time someone from Council works with the waste management folks and a group of citizen to look into the real problem. I think the problems are much deeper than cardboard disposal, or plastic bags, etc. and have to do with the cost of supporting a system which is ultimately unsustainable even in southern Canada.

We are approaching though a time when some of these tough decisions will not be 'nice to do' but 'have to do' when the cost of petroleum rises again, the standard of living falls some more, and global warming begins to bite. At that point, the economics of the situation will begin to drive decision making.

Norm Ruttan
iWasteNot Systems

Norm Ruttan
iWasteNot Systems
Canada
www.iwastenotsystems.com

Hi Terry,

Admittedly plastic bags are a small part of the waste stream, and in your area it does seem that much effort needs to go towards waste reduction, composting, and recycling, as you point out.

However, I do think the plastic bag has become a tangible symbol of our wastefulness, and it is much easier to identify than other significant sources of waste, i.e. packaging attached to products (which I think we need to fight politically, through federal regulation, and limited efforts have been made through the FCM for many years). In trying to change consumer wastefulness, and make it conscious, we likely have to find things we can point to and single out to help people broaden their awareness of life cycle issues.

It is also a fact that greening our behavior in some areas may incur a short term cost. However, we know not greening our lives now is putting a terribly large burden (financially and otherwise) on our children and theirs. Science shows us that to be sustainable on our planet, behavior needs to change regardless of short term inconvenience or minor cost. Anyone sensitive to the cost will soon make other packing arrangements, which is the whole point.

Re. the cardboard issue, maybe the passing off of disposal costs can be dealt with through other measures or better disposal in your community.

I think in our efforts to shift public opinion and behavior, we need to place accountability on consumers (and retailers). Having municipalities babysit them by looking after their trash, leaves residents with no clear picture of the waste/recycling stream, its magnitude, etc. We need to show residents the costs of waste (lifecycle charge) so they can become part of the solution. We all need to ask why we buy so many products with layers and layers of packaging (e.g., bagged cereal in a box that goes in another bag) and for how long this has been common practice. This is not the way things have to be done. By having producers used one layer (e.g., bagged cereal) and consumers use reusable bags, we cut the normal packaging of a box of cereal by at least a third.

I also think we can find many examples of holding a gun regulations that have generally worked well, safety measures come to mind, e.g. seat belt laws, or in our region, smoking bans in restaurants (there was an outcry at first, but now it is very much accepted). I was a city councilor in my town when the latter issue was being discussed. In the north isnt climate change already more tangible? Can the cynical youth thus be engaged? We elect our governments to become fully informed on issues and make decisions on our behalf. Sometimes this means informed politicians need to impose a regulation the general public isnt yet convinced about. I would not say its holding a gun if it helps the next generation have a decent standard of living.

Anyway, I see where you are coming from, and its great to hear youve been championing sustainable behavior in your area. Nonetheless, plastic bags may be a good target for action despite the good points you raise. If you go along with this small step, maybe other local politicians will be convinced by you to take the next needed steps and continue with their new green interests and voting record. Having people take a small step towards a goal can be very important in shifting mindset and making bigger steps more possible.

Good luck!

Cynthia van Ginkel
Port Moody BC

cynthiavg 

Terry,
Could people be encouraged more to bring their own bags with some signs in the parking lots and over the entrance doors, reminding them to bring their bags.
"Do you have your shopping bag?"
"Reusable Shopping Bags Welcome"

This could be an economical first step for all involved.

Marta Keane
Will County
United States