Like a growing number of states, New Jersey has banned single-use plastic bags. But it also bans paper bags. One result: Delivery companies are using heavy-duty reusable bags—but their online customers aren’t reusing them.
To meet the letter of the law, delivery companies like Instacart stopped using paper bags and switched to reusable cloth bags But according to the New York Times the bags are piling up in people’s homes. Customers who use services like Instacart don’t return them.
“The ban in New Jersey, which applies to grocery stores 2,500 square feet or bigger, is meant to encourage in-store shoppers to skip single-use plastic and paper entirely, and instead bring their own reusable bags.
“But that, of course, doesn’t work with most online orders.”
Furthermore, says Toeniskoetter, reusable cloth bags don’t do much for the environment unless they reused.
“According to Shelie Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, a typical reusable bag, manufactured from polypropylene, must be used at least 10 times to account for the additional energy and material required to make it.”
Image by Matthias Böckel from Pixabay.