Green Movement Sets Sights on Shopping Bags

As of this week, supermarket shoppers in Washington DC will be taxed 5 cents per bag on
plastic and paper shopping bags. The reason is environmental and its the latest chapter in the Green movement -- a trend that first emerged in corporate America a couple of years ago and continues to gather momentum. The tax covers paper and plastic -- both of which negatively impact the environment, though for different reasons.

Paper bags are tied to trees -- to produce them, trees get cut down. On the other hand, those thin plastic bags most supermarkets use don't decompose at all, so they're awful for landfills.

The idea is to discourage the continued use of these bags and instead move to reusable bags -- the cloth-like (actually polypropylene) bags that supermarkets began selling a couple of years ago and that are also available through our industry. Businesses will retain a percentage of the tax, depending on whether they offer a credit for reusable bags, with the rest of the revenue going to a special fund to clean up an area river.

How smoothly the law is implemented depends on the efforts of the District of Columbia to educate and prepare the public. The city's Department of Environment started its campaign in the fall, and the willingness of local businesses to help out is an encouraging sign. For example, CVS is partnering with the department to provide 100,000+ free reusable bags, and Giant, which had opposed the legislation, has agreed to provide a free reusable bag with every purchase during the first week of January -- estimated to total 250,000 bags.

It's probably a safe bet to assume that the Federal and many state governments will take a long hard look at this effort with an idea towards replicating it -- and it could well mean the days of 'plastic or paper' are numbered.

But for the near term, if you're looking for a hot promotional trend entering 2010, reusable shopping bags are it.

And here's a thought. Since these bags are becoming more and more commonplace, which ones would you think are more likely to get used -- the low end, bland blue or red ones most supermarkets are selling -- or something nice and colorful with an attractive design (like say a company logo) that's available through the promotional products industry?

To me, this is a tremendous marketing opportunity for any company that values brand exposure to the people who shop in supermarkets and drug stores. And with some of the imprint processes that are now available, you can create some pretty cool designs.

More more information, contact me at sboyages@promoresource.com.

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