IKEA will open in Portland July 25 (woo hoo). Hopefully, they won't wait long before they start charging customers for plastic bags, as they are now doing in the Seattle store. IKEA charges five cents for every plastic bag you use at checkout, and they donate the money to American Forests, a non-profit tree-planting organization. As an alternative, IKEA sells a large, reusable bag for only 59 cents. The store cites these statistics:
- The average family of 4 accumulates 1460 plastic shopping bags a year
- 100 billion are given away each year in the US
- Plus it can take up to 1000 years for a plastic bag to break down in the environment
We've talked about this before -- paper bags are just as bad for the environment as plastic bags and it would be great if Portland lived up to its image as a trailblazer and banned all single-use bags. (Attention Sam Adams.) I wrote an op-ed for the Oregonian -- an open letter to Commissioner Sam -- about this subject six weeks ago (it was never published), but I know from personal experience how easy it is to change personal habits and start carrying reusable bags. Feel strongly about the issue? Send Sam an email! In the meantime, look for reusable bags at your grocery store -- just about every store offers them now for a buck or two.






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