IKEA wants you to break a bag habit

IKEA wants you to break a bag habit

Just had to post this news story. My favorite part is highlighted, because I think this is just awesome! I'm all for it!


IKEA wants you to break a bag habit
05:18 PM PST on Tuesday, February 27, 2007
By GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News



RENTON, Wash. - Enjoy that free plastic bag while you can because pretty soon IKEA will charge you for it.

"We are going to charge five cents for our disposable bags," said Becky Jorgensen of IKEA Seattle.

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IKEA hopes to reduce the plastic-bag problem by charging customers for them.

How can they charge five cents for a bag you can for free anywhere? Well that's the point. IKEA and local government agencies say free plastic bags are an expensive problem.

"Seattle generates about 3,000 tons of plastic bags every year and only about 20 percent of them get recycled," said Brett Stav of Seattle Public Utilities.

Most of the rest of them end up in the trash, then the landfill, or even worst, as litter, and that's a problem.

"Well, plastic bags don't biodegrade, they don't break down over time," said Stav.

IKEA wants to reduce that problem by penalizing you for using these and reward you for buying and reusing recycled blue bags.

"And if you purchase the blue bag for 59 cents, then every time you use that we'll give you 25 cents off your order," said Jorgensen.

So what happens to the nickel they're going to charge you? Every cent goes to the American Forests organization for planting new trees.

IKEA wants you to help them reduce the number of bags they produce by half. Doing that would be substantial when you consider IKEA sent 70 million bags out their doors nationwide last year. It would make a big difference to the environment if they could replace half of those with the new bags.

And if you're still skeptical, here's a deal for you: bring your own bags from home, and IKEA will take a nickel off your bill for each one needed to bag you purchases.

IKEA says it used the same program in the United Kingdom and has reduced bag consumption by 95 percent.

Environmental groups say plastic bags waste valuable oil resources, release toxins when burned, and contribute to global warming because of the energy required to produce them. They also say bags littering the oceans annually kill sea turtles and other marine animals that mistake them for food.

Americans discarded more than 4.4 million tons of low- and high-density polyethylene bags, sacks, and wraps in 2005, according to a report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Only 5.2 percent of those were recovered for recycling, the EPA said.

In Seattle, plastic grocery bags, newspaper bags, and dry cleaning bags can be recycled (remove any receipts and bundle them together into one bag).

All other plastic bags, including those that have contained fruit, vegetables, bread, snack foods, and pet food are NOT recyclable. Food residue and moisture contaminates the plastic, making it unusable.

Plastic food storage and freezer bags such as Ziplock are NOT recyclable. Plastic frozen food bags are NOT recyclable (paper frozen food boxes ARE recyclable). Large plastic bags for yard mulch are NOT recyclable.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.