Kroger, Offer Incentives for Reusable Shopping Bags

By offering incentives to shoppers who bring their own bags, Kroger would be sending a strong message, making a big impact, and directly involving shoppers in the sustainability effort. Within the last few years, Kroger has implemented some great sustainable policies and practices but these likely go unnoticed because the shoppers don't feel like they are doing anything.

Target, Whole Foods, and Sprouts are a few of Kroger's competitors who already offer incentives such as 5 to 10 cents off per reusable shopping bag. Trader Joes enters responsible shoppers into a weekly raffle each time they bring their own bag. Aldi claims to save customers up to 50 percent on groceries thanks to several cost-saving strategies including a bring-your-own-bag policy.

Plastics, such as plastic shopping bags, are a huge problem. This is why several states and many cities have outright banned them. Plastic is often not recycled even if it goes to a recycling facility. Unlike paper, it is not biodegradable; plastics only break down into smaller pieces of plastic which are really good at absorbing toxins. Unfortunately, these tiny, toxin-laden-bits of plastic end up in our food and water poisoning us and many other animals along the way. Much of our plastics find their way out into the ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, for example, is a floating patch of mostly plastic trash off the coast of California that is twice the size of Texas! This is only one of many such garbage patches in our oceans. Right now, the best thing we can do to remedy all this garbage that is killing us and our oceans is to reduce the amount of new garbage that we add to it.

Its time for Kroger to send a strong message, make a big impact, and directly involve shoppers in the sustainability effort by offering incentives for reusable shopping bags.