The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that just 2% of plastic bags are recycled. When considering that Americans use roughly 100 billion plastic bags every year, that percentage is clearly insufficient.
The average American uses between 350 to 500 plastic bags a year. While some of these bags may be recycled or reused, a major percentage are not. If just one person re-used all of the bags they obtained over their lifetime, it would remove over 22,000 plastic bags from the environment and landfills.
Most of the plastic bags shoppers received in the past may have only been used for 25 minutes or so. This is the approximate time it may take to collect their items at the check-out counter, deposit them in their car, then unpack them at home.
Furthermore, many of the former bags were also flimsy, tore easily, and often had to be doubled or tripled in order to adequately carry various types of purchases. In this case, these bags were rarely reusable, and given the EPAs findings, likely thrown in the garbage rather than in a recycling bin.
Current reusable bags, however, are sturdier and of a higher quality. In addition to being able to contain more items, their handles are also more substantial, which aids in carrying purchases. It’s important to note that just one reusable grocery bag is the equivalent of 700 disposable bags.
Since you want to encourage your customers to take their purchases home in reusable grocery bags, it’s a good idea to have a variety available. In addition to buying custom insulated bags, you may also want to have several sizes of custom wine bags or wine totes. Custom wine bags, as well as other types of shopping bags, can all be purchased wholesale and in bulk to meet your customers’ needs.
The next time customers shop at your store, it will be nice to see them carrying reusable bags. You may want to consider offering incentives for recycling non-reusable bags at your store. In this way, you are showing that you care about recycling and encourage your customers to do so as well.