Ikea to charge U.S. customers for plastic bags

[Kevin]

By Jon Hurdle
Wed Feb 21, 1:59 PM ET



PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Sweden's IKEA will charge U.S. customers five cents for disposable plastic shopping bags in what the international furniture giant said on Wednesday was a first step to ending their use altogether.

IKEA said the decision to stop giving away free bags to customers aimed to reduce the estimated 100 billion bags thrown away by all U.S. consumers each year.

IKEA is believed to be first retailer in the United States to undertake such a program, according to National Retail Federation spokesman Scott Krugman.

Concern about widespread pollution caused by the bags has led cities and countries from Ireland to Australia and Rwanda to ban their use. Bangladesh outlawed plastic bags after they blocked drains and contributed to flooding. Taiwan uses 80 percent fewer bags after stores began charging for them.

Environmentalists say the bags add unnecessarily to landfills, clog drains and endanger wildlife.

IKEA currently provides some 70 million free bags to its U.S. customers; it expects to cut that by half in the first year and to eventually eliminate the use of the bags.

The company said it will also cut the price of reusable bags to 59 cents from 99 cents to encourage their use. The program will begin on March 15 at the company's 29 U.S. stores and the money from bag sales will go to American Forests, a conservation group.

Last June, IKEA began charging its U.K. customers for plastic bags, and has reduced its bag consumption by 95 percent, said spokeswoman Mona Astra Liss.

The average American family of four throws away about 1,500 single-use polyethylene bags, which do not degrade for around 1,000 years, IKEA said. Less than 1 percent are recycled.

"We believe Americans are starting to be more conscious of the environment," Liss said. "Our objective is to get people to really think about the impact of the bags which are strangling the planet."

[Valo's Moirana]

in austria, plastic bags have to be purchased (~50cents). they are usually thicker which makes them easily re-usable.... we have a stack of bags we use for shopping... so, that idea is nothing new and quite common in europe

[raddaughter]

I like the idea. I reuse plastice bags and have a bunch of them stacked up. I prefer to use paper, but the bad thing about that is they would have to cut down many trees to match the amount of plastic bags we use every day... Too bad there isn't another alternative :(

[Vega]

instead of charging people...why not just stop using them?

[Kevin]

Reason people keep using them is its a bigger situation and deeper than one would think. There are some ramificatiosn for just stopping the use.

1. Businesses need an alternative.

2. Their customers are probably or havent yet warmed up to the idea of paying for bags yet thus if they do charge it will hurt their business, family, etc

3. It also cramps the style and hurts jobs where the people work to make these bags.

It will take some time to transition to the no plastic bag for free concept for sure but in time I think it will catch on here just my logic.

[Tiki]

I don't know about plastic bags at Ikea here, I don't shop there. But they do have the most annoying tv commercial I have ever seen! Some guy named Steve with his roof racks!

[Wiggi]

Originally Posted by Valo's Moirana

in austria, plastic bags have to be purchased (~50cents). they are usually thicker which makes them easily re-usable.... we have a stack of bags we use for shopping... so, that idea is nothing new and quite common in europe

It´s the same here in Sweden. And I´ve always paid for my Ikea bags as far as I can remember (but I always choose the paper bags).

[Missi]

I don't think anything I'd buy at Ikea would FIT into a plactic bag!!

We reuse our plastic bags for picking up dog poopies on walks!

[kristy29]

We have a food store here in PA called Aldi, and they charge for the bags. Like a pp said, they are very thick, and we reuse them. I think this is a great thing!

[FairyMom]

yeah here in Wichita our Aldi charges for bags too. Also thick and resusable lol. Have done this for years. Ikea isnt the first.