Shopping with no plastic, paper bags. But also, no cardboard boxes.

Hi,

I greatly appreciate and were refreshed by your store's decision to no longer use plastic or paper bags. Instead, your store changed to giving cardboard boxes out for those who happened to not have brought in their own reusable cloth bags.

I am writing because now we are not sure that using cardboard boxes are a good alternative either.
Not all residential areas have curbside recycle pickups. Also, at least in some areas, to recycle cardboard boxes, one has to make an effort to break down the boxes, flatten them, and then tie them together. In addition, only boxes of a certain size (rather small) are accepted. It seems most people can easily recycle plastic and paper, but it is hard and more time consuming to recycle the boxes. Also, people with poor health who actually don't have the strength to break down the boxes.
One suggestion/idea is to simply have in the store a bin where customers can drop off recycled paper bags and plastic bags, such as bags they have gotten from other stores (Walgreens, etc.) If a customer at Vitamin Cottage has no bag, perhaps Vitamin Cottage could use one of the bags dropped off at the recycle bin and _reuse_ the plastic or paper bags. In this instance there would be no actual need to recycle; simply reusing bags would be enough, and cardboard boxes would not go to waste. One would simply need to ensure that the donated plastic and paper bags are clean. Bags in the bins could also be recycled as necessary, if bins become full.
This is just an idea; hope you will consider it. Thank you for listening.

Hi,

I greatly appreciate and were refreshed by your store's decision to no longer use plastic or paper bags. Instead, your store changed to giving cardboard boxes out for those who happened to not have brought in their own reusable cloth bags.

I am writing because now we are not sure that using cardboard boxes are a good alternative either.
Not all residential areas have curbside recycle pickups. Also, at least in some areas, to recycle cardboard boxes, one has to make an effort to break down the boxes, flatten them, and then tie them together. In addition, only boxes of a certain size (rather small) are accepted. It seems most people can easily recycle plastic and paper, but it is hard and more time consuming to recycle the boxes. Also, people with poor health who actually don't have the strength to break down the boxes.
One suggestion/idea is to simply have in the store a bin where customers can drop off recycled paper bags and plastic bags, such as bags they have gotten from other stores (Walgreens, etc.) If a customer at Vitamin Cottage has no bag, perhaps Vitamin Cottage could use one of the bags dropped off at the recycle bin and _reuse_ the plastic or paper bags. In this instance there would be no actual need to recycle; simply reusing bags would be enough, and cardboard boxes would not go to waste. One would simply need to ensure that the donated plastic and paper bags are clean. Bags in the bins could also be recycled as necessary, if bins become full.
This is just an idea; hope you will consider it. Thank you for listening.