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ByLeo Victor

Plastic bag bans could be a boon for promotional items

More states and cities across the nation are banning the ubiquitous plastic bag, hoping to quash its affect on the environment and stop it from piling up in landfills.

According to New York magazine, the average New Yorker goes through 620 of the lightweight plastic bags a year, with the residents of the largest city in America using 5.2 million sacks a year. Pairing that large number with the amount of time it takes the average shopping bag to decompose – 20 to 1,000 years, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s science blog – and you’ve got a problem.

Americans toss away more than 100 billion plastic single-use bags every year, but only 1 to 3 percent of those are recycled, Sierra Magazine reported. Meanwhile, Florida legislators are just the latest in a string of lawmakers to consider putting the hammer down on plastic bags, according to WFLA Tampa Bay, Florida’s NBC affiliate.

Bag ban can be a boon
More customers are making use of tote or other reusable branded bags to carry their groceries as a growing number cities and states ban or attempt to forbid single-use bags. The new laws could also help companies looking to get their brand noticed. Businesses can take advantage of the bans by giving away promotional bags made from canvas or other tough materials as a way of marketing themselves.

Reusable branded bags are a good item to give out as more plastic bag bans go into effect.Companies that use branded reusable bags can get their names out to the public.

Handing out branded bags can create a multitude of impressions from the supermarket to the shopping mall. Customers will also see your company name every time they pick up the bag to go to the grocery store.

If you really want to be proactive, then give away branded bags at community events or near supermarkets to customers who might’ve forgotten their grocery sacks. The shoppers might even be grateful, especially if they’re not aware of a ban in place.

According to The Chicago Tribune, Chicago’s recent ruling to prohibit large grocery stores and retailers from giving out free plastic bags took residents by surprise. Some patrons decided to just carry their items out instead of paying for a bag. The city’s ban includes shops that have multiple locations inside Chicago’s borders that have a floor area of 10,000 or more square feet, WTTW reported.

Supermarkets and patrons save money
Retailers in cities like Chicago and Providence, Rhode Island, are selling reinforced sacks in their stores as those communities’ bans go into effect. According to ABC News, reusable bags save grocery stores money as opposed to giving out plastic or paper bags with each customer purchase. In fact, Chicago can slap stores that violate the ban with a $300 to $500 fine. Therefore, replacing single-use bags with sturdier reusable options is now a must for many supermarkets and large chain stores.

However, selling the new eco-friendly sacks isn’t the problem.

“Our biggest challenge is keeping them in stock because the customers are really responding to them,” Robert Keane, spokesman for Stop & Shop, told ABC News. The Quincy, Massachusetts-based supermarket chain began selling inexpensive reusable bags to patrons after bans went into effect in towns across the state.

Meanwhile, large grocery store chains in Chicago are following suit by offering their own promotional bags at a price for customers who forget to bring in their own, according to the Advertising Specialty Institute.

Some markets are giving patrons discounts as an incentive to shop with a reusable bag, according to ABC News. Chains such as Whole Foods take 5 to 10 cents off for every reused bag, while local independents like Eastside Marketplace takes off 3 cents whenever a customer uses his or her own bag.

Reusable branded bags are here to stay until engineers can develop a bag that’s as convenient as the single-use plastic bag but degrades in landfills faster.

“I wouldn’t even call it a trend anymore. It’s more like a growing way of life,” Kim Moreau, a spokeswoman for Eastside Marketplace, told ABC News.

A change to embrace
Reusable bags made of cloth or tough man-made fabrics are a great way to market a business or brand. As they become the norm, more companies should consider them as promotional items. The average customer would rather use a branded bag they received as part of a promotion than purchase one at his or her local grocery store. Whenever the product is in use either at the grocery store, at a farmer’s market or at a large discount chain store, it will create new impressions for your business wherever that person goes.