Banning free plastic bags for groceries resulted in customers purchasing more plastic bags, study finds

[littlemissmartypants]

Nov 18, 2024
Banning free plastic bags for groceries resulted in customers purchasing more plastic bags, study finds

by David Danelski , University of California - Riverside

Regulations imposed to protect the environment may continue to have impacts even after they are repealed. And those lingering impacts include some that run contrary to the goals of the policies.

Such are the findings of a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research co-authored by UC Riverside marketing professor Hai Che that examined policies to curtail the use of single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and other retail outlets in Austin and Dallas, Texas—policies that were later repealed.

Significantly, the behaviors spurred by the plastic bag rules continued after the rules were no longer in place. And some impacts were not beneficial to the environment.

"We were hoping for positive spillover effects, like customers will be more environmentally conscious and consume less one-time use plastic or paper products," said Che, an associate professor at UCR's School of Business. "But that's not what happened in the data. People wound up buying more plastic."
Snip...more...(not all bad news)...
https://phys.org/news/2024-11-free-plastic-bags-groceries-resulted.html

❤️pants

[Native]

1. You know, those brown paper bags worked just fine.

Our local Sprouts Farmers Market only has the super thick plastic "reusable" bags for purchase, absolutely no alternative. These damn things are at least 10 times the thickness of the standard plastic grocery bags. I'm not talking the kind you buy and use over and over again - this looks just like the regular bags but disgustingly thick. When I forget my bags, I just leave with my stuff in a cart and then toss it in my car. Fuck plastic bags.

[DetlefK]

2. I have been re-using the same sturdy cotton-bag for 10 years now.

It's a strong fabric that can hold a lot of weight. And if it gets dirty, from holding potatoes or whatnot, twist it inside-out and put it into the washing-machine.

It's really not complicated.

[HarryM]

3. Funny, in Europe

You generally have to bring your own bag. It's been this way for some time. If you want a bag, you have to pay for it. Here in the Netherlands, they are starting to charge for plastic containers for things like salads at the deli. Not to mention the bottle deposit is .15€ for small bottles and .25€ for larger bottles, no matter what they contain. Soda, juice, water, all get the same deposits on them.

[Callie1979]

5. If we did deposits we'd never see roadsides trashed with bottles.

When I was a kid I picked up bottles on the road all the time. Drag my wagon to the store & walk out with $3. I thought I was GOD.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. They may have banned plastic bags here in New York, but everything you buy at the grocery store comes in plastic!

Bakery items cakes and cookies come in plastic containers, fruits and vegetables come in plastic bags, meats are wrapped in plastic, even paper products are wrapped in plastic!

[no_hypocrisy]

6. I'm a cashier in an upscale grocery store in NJ. 2-1/2 years w/o plastic and paper.

Observations:

1. Most customers bring their bags and often buy more than the volume of those bags.

2. A lot of customers have bags and leave them at home or in their cars. They won't buy our store bags every time they come shopping as they already have 20.

3. A notable number of customers refuse to get bags and put their items either in a plastic basket or in their carts.

4. Our store loses a heck of a lot of plastic baskets as the customers take them to their cars and instead of transferring their items to their vehicles, they simply place the full baskets into their backseats and don't return the baskets rather than returning them to the store. That's $8.00 a pop. We've easily lost $8,000, if not more. Management and security don't insist on leaving the baskets in the store. We're regularly running out of baskets.

5. We lose money as well with the carts. A customer buying 10+ items and putting them in the cart just walks out of the store. Security doesn't check the sales receipts. Management doesn't want us to put "Paid Stickers" on each item. Stickers are saved for big-ticket items like meat and liquor. We've caught rogue "customers" who load up their carts with liquor and meat and push their carts out to their cars without paying.

6. I try to walk around no-bags issue by packing groceries in empty wine boxes to keep the baskets in the store. (I know, I know. Security still doesn't check the receipts with what's in the boxes or their bags.)

[mopinko]

7. my fave hdw store always has boxes.

i almost never get a bag there.
the bag law here has tons of exceptions. i try not to accept a bag, and will juggle several items to the car. still i end up w bags. the little bodegas r exempt.
i order food out, mostly, and about half the time it comes in a plastic bag. restaurants r exempt.

i cant imagine just walking out w a basket. i’m so behind the times.

[hlthe2b]

8. I don't see plastic as an option in Colorado--at least where I have spent time. Everyone brings own or pays for PAPER.

I don't even think CO stores (including Sprouts in the first post) CAN legally sell non-reusable plastic, except for the very thin biodegradable produce bags.

I just don't see what they are reporting here. If someone forgets their bag and doesn't want to pay $5 of more for the reusable nicer bags, then they either pay for the paper ones or cart their unbagged stuff to the car and toss it in a box or floorboard.

I haven't seen those single-use (very rippable) plastic bags in CO grocery stores for several years now. It is local regulation, so, there may be counties that haven't passed on the Western Slope or perhaps toward Pueblo to the South. But, over the state, simply NOT what the article is reporting.

There is an exemption (fortunately) for biodegradable doggy bags which a lot of cities do stock in the parks.

[mitch96]

9. One of the stores I frequent removed the freee thin plastic bags and replaced them with sturdier ones but

you have to purchase them. I bought two and so far they have lasted me over a year with no failures...
It works if I remember to bring them into the store...
m

[hunter]

10. California is banning all plastic bags starting in 2016.

The ten cent charge for supposedly "reusable" plastic bags didn't work, it only increased the tonnage of plastic going to our landfills.

Ten years after California approved a plastic bag ban that’s been blamed for making its plastic bag problem worse, the state is banning single-use plastic grocery bags entirely.

In 2014, California became the first state to pass a plastic bag ban. It’s one of at least 12 states that now have some form of ban on single-use plastic bags.

But because of a loophole in its initial ban that allowed grocers to charge for thicker plastic bags, California still dumped 231,072 tons of plastic grocery and merchandise bags in landfills in 2021, according to the state’s recycling agency, CalRecycle. That was a sharp increase from the year the ban took effect — and nearly 100,000 more tons than in 2018.

--more--

https://www.npr.org/2024/09/25/nx-s1-5123535/california-passes-new-plastic-bag-ban