Ikea bins plastic bags
Published Friday, 3rd October 2008
Swedish flat-pack furniture seller Ikea will stop offering plastic or paper bags at any of its US stores from this month.
In March last year Ikea set a goal of reducing its US stores’ plastic bag consumption by half, from a whopping 70 million to 35 million, in 12 months.
Initially the plan was to push customers into using reusable bags or no bags, or charge five cents for using a plastic bag (with the proceeds going to not-for-profit conservation organisation American Forest).
Plastic bag reduction at Ikea’s US stores is at 92 per cent and the company has now decided to withdraw the option of buying a plastic bag or paper bags altogether.
The overall figures for plastic bag consumption in the US are still shocking. The Environmental Protection Agency says the US consumes more than 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps each year. Each year, Americans also throw away some 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags, and less than one per cent of them are recycled.
Single-use bags made of high-density polyethylene are the main environmental culprit, taking up to a thousand years to degrade.
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That’s funny, because in europe I can not even remember when Ikea stopped offering plastic bags. I think Ikea here worked since the beginning with reusable bags…
Good for Ikea! It’s about time a retailer made this leap forward……now if only BIG retailers would do the same……..
AS FOR THE UNITED STATES, WE AMERICANS USE PLASTIC BAGS FOR OUR SHOPPING, JUST BECAUSE A FEW IDIOTS IN MY COUNTRY CANT KEEP TRACK OF THEIR PLASTIC BAGS AND SEATTLE. WASHINGTON’S MAYOR PLASTIC BIBE NICKLES WANTS TO CHANGE THEIR CITIES WAYS, MOST NORMAL AMERICANS FIND PLASTIC BAGS USEFUL AND VERY EFFICIENT TO USE NORMALLY. WE TAKE CARE OF OUR PLASTICS. HAVE A NICE DAY. MIKE
Banning the plastic bags is a since long time acquired use in Belgian supermarkets.
In the Delhaize supermakets we can buy plastic containers for storing the goods you bought in the car.
In Belgian supermarkets you can take the carton-boxes where washing detergents were packed to pack the goods you bought and transport them home.
Afterward, I use that carton boxes to pack the old newspapers and all he ‘old’ paper to bring them to the paper recycling container in my town.
BRAVO IKEA ! WAY TO SET THE EXAMPLE. NOW IF WE CAN GET THE GROCERY STORES TO FOLLOW WE WILL BE WELL ON THE WAY.
FOR MANY YEARS I WAS ONE OF THE UNKNOWING UNSUSPECTING AVERAGE JOES OUT THERE WHO KNEW NOTHING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE DRASTIC DAMAGE THE WE AS HUMANS HAVE ON OUR PLANET AND THE ENVIRONMENT EACH AND EVERY DAY BY THE SIMPLE THINGS WE NEVER THOUGHT TWICE ABOUT. I HAVE SINCE OPENED UP MY EYES AND MY MIND TO THE DEVASTATING DAMAGE WE HAVE ON THIS LOVELY PLANET AND OF OURS, AS WELL AS THE MARINE LIFE AND FINALLY THE HUMAN LIFE ! MY GOODNESS, I HAD NO IDEA IT WAS AS BAD AS IT IS AND GETTING WORSE BY THE MINUTE. I PERSONALLY CAN NOT SIT BACK AND WATCH THIS HORRIBLE ACTION TAKE PLACE ANY LONGER WITHOUT MAKING AN EFFORT AND CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACTION TO STOP OR EXTREMELY SLOW DOWN WHAT IS TAKING PLACE OUT THERE. WE HAVE ONE PLANET. WHEN IT IS GONE WE ARE GONE ! PLAIN AND SIMPLE. I CAN NOT BE A PART OF THAT ANY LONGER. I AM DOING EVERYTHING I CAN TO HELP THE EARTH AND HUMANITY ITSELF TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO HIGHLY CONSIDER WHAT IS HAPPENING OUT THERE AND HELP US ! HELP THE ONES WHO CARE. WE CAN NOT DO IT ALONE, BUT WE WILL CERTAINLY GIVE IT OUR BEST WHILE WE CAN. PERSONALLY I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE MY CHILDREN GROW UP IN A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT, LIVE A LONG HEALTHY LIFESTYLE, AND TOO SAY “HEY, MY DAD HELPED MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR ME’ WITH DEEP CARE AND CONCERN FOR OUR PLANET AND THE SOULS WHO INHABIT IT.
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Seriously, the typo on this article still hasn’t been corrected yet?
Yeah, the typo’s bugging me too.
Ok, so you can reduce and recycle, now can you manage to take the CAPS lock off when you’re responding to a Website.