bring your own shopping bag

That is a good idea. Plastic bags are not very good because they are non-biodegrable and therefore, pollute the earth if not recycled. And when there is too much plastic bags, people become careless and do neglect recycling. Bringing our own shopping bags is one way of recycling, whether it be plastic bags we already have or different kinds of shopping bags that we can use again and again.

Where I live here in the U.S. the supermarkets have some kind of cash back or rewards point programs for bringing your own bags. One store has 5 cents back per back, another has 10 cents back and another has 5 rewards points which sometimes can work out to be worth 5 cents. Target is the only non-supermarket that I know of that has such a program and theirs is 5 cents off. I do it most of the time to get the cash back etc. It is a pain and I probably wouldn't do it without the discount.

In some of the shops run by educated herein garden city of India, Eco friendly and recyclable bags are given without extra cost. In Reliance mall, for every purchase of Rs. 100 we get a point, which can be redeemed for attractive and useful things. Food world offers a free home delivery for the purchases above Rs.1500/-. Just few days ago i.e. on 16.03.2010 Asia's biggest shopping mall(SPAR) was inaugurated at Malleswaram, Bangalore, South India, where they sell 153 varieties of sea foods and 55 odd types of cheese and so on.... Lots of free samples including food items were more than shopping.

Hi gracefuldove, that is a lovely way to bring down plastic bag usage! In India, we dont go that way. :( Even when the vegetables are delivered right at the door steps, we ask for plastic bags! :( I think its time the Rich and the Famous took to shopping groceries in classy bags - may be trends would change after seeing them.

there are also a couple of supermarkets/ grocery stores which either provide those reusable bags through redeeming bonus points or have them sold at a ceap price. asking for extra plastic bags is also not free anymore. i really think that even small things like this will be of huge help if we people all do it together. we can definitely make a big difference.

Yeah,in our country,the shops don't provide plastic bags free any more.It's for environmental protection purpose. I think it's good and nowadays,we usually bring our own bags for shopping. It worked for about nearly a year and more people get used to it and bring their own bags now. It'a really good to environment.

Hi graceful, Here there was a ban on plastic at some point of time, shop keepers were on alert and didn’t provide plastic bags and asked us to bring own bags with jute/cloths. In fact many big shops changed their bags into paper, jute etc. Actually the usage of less quality plastic bags is not good for health. In cities the thin plastic bags are making much nuisance. Some schools are also banned plastic and they have educated the kids too about the problems of plastic bags. Here there is no incentive program started yet. I think it is a good move in your country by encouraging people to change the habit of using plastic and save the environment.

This is such a nice step, i appreciate it, here in india in my state polythene bags are banned, but who cares? If our govt or shopkeepers give things like those in KL it will be helpful.. Thanks for sharing. Welcome always. Cheers. Professor