Will You Pay 5 Cents For A Bag?

It looks like according to the article below grocery stores are passing the buck to us! Consumers are expected to pick up the tab on the bags used to package groceries. Or you can bring your own reusable bags. Will you stock up on cloth bags or are you willing to pay for every bag used?


Plastic bags: To pay or not to pay?
By Melissa Eddy ASSOCIATED PRESS

For decades the standard question at U.S. grocery store checkout counters has been "paper or plastic?" But since January, consumers in Washington have faced a different question: "Will you pay 5 cents for a bag?"

Europeans long have accepted the idea of providing their own baskets, bags or nets to carry their purchases, or paying for bags. But in the United States, where retailers go out of their way to cater to customers' needs, being given a free paper or plastic bag to carry purchases is largely taken for granted. So not all Washingtonians are pleased.

"I think it's unnecessary," said Daniel Koroma, 57, as he toted groceries home from a supermarket in a plastic bag that he'd paid for. "They sell you the groceries, they should give you something to put them in."

While one major city, San Francisco, has banned plastic bags, Washington's law is the first of its kind in the United States. It is being carefully watched by activists who hope that one strong success will prove the tipping point for a program aimed at reducing litter, pollution and waste.

"Whichever state is going to pull this is off is going to have the potential to be seen as the one that has cracked this problem," said Vincent Cobb, founder of the reuseit.com Web site, which promotes recycling and sells reusable bags.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/22/plastic-bags-...