According to Treehugger, IKEA will be charging $.05 for each plastic bag starting March 15 in an effort to encourage environmentally responsible behavior. IKEA will also be reducing the price of their re-usable blue shopping bags (also known as the greatest laundry bag ever) to $.59 from $.99. From Treehugger:
Proceeds of up to $1.75 million (that’s a whole lot of bags) from the bag campaign will go to American Forests, the nation’s oldest non-profit citizens conservation organization, to plant trees to restore forests and offset CO2 emissions,..IKEA projects that the number of plastic bags used by their U.S. customers will be reduced by at least 50% from 70 million to 35 million in the first year. This program was launched in IKEA stores in the UK in late Spring 2006, and reduction has been an impressive 95 percent.
The program was very popular in the UK, and we love those IKEA shopping bags, so we’re all for it. We imagine, however, that a lot of people won’t be.—MEGHANN MARCO
IKEA US to ‘Bag The Plastic Bag’ [Treehugger]
(Photo: pdxsurreal)
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I reuse paper bags all the time at the grocery. When they wear out I just ask for paper again. The only exception is that I occasionally ask plastic grocery bags that I later use for my trash.
@Rahnee wrote
From the CIA Fact Book: “Oil – Consumption: 20.03 million bbl/day (2003 est.)” So your 11 million bbl/year figure is just half of the USA’s consumption in one day.
Assume for the sake of simplicity that extra availability would decrease the price of all oil proportionately. The price of gas would drop by about 1/720, which is .139 percent. At $3/gal, that’s a reduction of 300/720 or .417 cents. Yes, less than 1/2 cent per gallon.
Don’t spend it all in one place.
In other words, the price of oil is not the reason to use reusable bags.
Yet.
IKEA’s blue bags are indeed the best laundry bag ever.
Which is why I’m so sad that mine is falling apart. I moved away from any nearby IKEA. Sigh.
I’m amazed (not really) at the number of comments that read along the lines of “this is a great idea, I do it already and I think everyone should have to do it too.” Uh, it’s called choice. If you want to do it fine, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ok to impose it on everyone else. http://www.shrubwalkers.com/prose/list/not.html
A small part of me wonders if there would be howls of outrage if Walmart did this with people complaining that “Walmart is just trying to stiff their customers again.”
The costs of the bags are already figured into the costs of what you’re buying, just as the wages of the employees, the cost of cleaning supplies, utility bills etc. But I’d be very surprised if there’s corresponding decrease in IKEA’s overall prices since they aren’t paying for the bags anymore. Of course any drop would be fractions of pennies since it would be spread out over the prices on thousands of items so that’s not really fair of me…
Ikea isn’t “imposing” on anybody. If you don’t like it, don’t shop there. I’m not suggesting passing laws to mandate you bring your own bags, merely suggesting it’s a good idea. While I have a campaign against SUVs on my site — a campaign I created to help change public opinion so unnecessarily huge vehicles (for, say one woman driving to Hollywood with a script and a latte) would be uncool to drive — why should one person take more of our shared resources than necessary? It takes energy to make bags. Notice a war going on in the Middle East at the moment? If they grew potatoes instead of having oil under the ground, do you really think we’d be so interested in them? Yes, Bin Laden and all that. But, I didn’t see any old photos of George Bush holding hands with Irish potato farmers (like he does with various Arab oil potentates), did you?
I meant to say, I have a campaign against SUVs, but perhaps you should pay a carbon tax for polluting more if you have a giant vehicle; ie, taking more of the clean air of the rest of us. We share the planet, and it’s simply rude to use resources unnecessarily.
I drive a SULEV Honda Insight that gets 60-some MPG if I don’t go too fast on the highway and there isn’t a lot of traffic. SULEV means “Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle.” And my friend Darcy just bought a new VW Bug that runs on vegetable oil. Not available when I bought mine, back in 2004, or I would’ve gone for that instead.
There are a whole lot of “petroleum distillates” that come from refining crude oil. Plastic is merely one of these, they get rocket fuel, kerosene, diesel, tar, asphalt is made from crude oil, the ptholeolauuethatuhates that make up the dash of your car, all petroleum distillates. When oil goes, so does all the plastic and asphalt roads will deteriorate, etc. Though there is a way to grind up existing asphalt and combine it with more tar or something to make new pavement. The chemicals to make plastic are a bi-product of gasoline or other types of refining of crude oil. At least that’s partly how it works as I understand it.
My Trader Joe’s has started to give out raffle tickets if you bring your own bags. Once a month they give out a $25.00 gift card. Great incentive and good publicity for them as well.
@SOhp101: There aren’t any bags at Costcos in Chicago!
Trader Joe’s gives you a full sized paper bag with handles, free. What makes this interesting is that TJ’s is owned by the same two German brothers that own Aldi, which of course charges for bags.
They’ve done this in Australia for years, apparently. If you don’t need a bag or bring one with you, great–you don’t buy one. No big deal. It surprised me the first trip, but after that it was fine. Our bags are more expensive here, though.
Costcos in NC didn’t have bags.
When shopping at IKEA last week I was explained that every bag will cost me five cents and that the money will be donated to the American Forest.Althoug I can simpatize with the enviromentalists, I believe that bagging a customers purchases is part of customer service and an expense for being on business.If IKEA supports the American Forest, bag my purchases for FREE and at the end of the month or the year make a donation with IKEA MONEY. Don’t force me to donate MY money.No only the company is saving money in packaging, they are also getting a tax write-off because of the customer’s money donated…I was explained that the money is going to a good cause, then, better yet, why don’t they donate a percentage of the salary of the people that came up with this idea??? After all…is going to a good cause!!!