Posted on 07/22/2013 4:47:51 PM PDT by matt04
Stop & Shop has ended its reusable bag rebate program Sunday after five years, a move that frustrated environmental groups and prompted one to decline a $10,000 donation from the supermarket chain. The program, which launched in 2008, gave customers a 5-cent rebate for each reusable bag they filled buying groceries. Designed to decrease plastic bag consumption, the initiative saved 15 million plastic and paper bags last year, said Arlene Putterman, a Stop & Shop spokeswoman.
Now, the grocer, which has stores throughout Long Island, has terminated the program, citing "a plateau in effectiveness."
"It became a cultural change," Putterman said. "It got to the point where the program was no longer influencing customers to bring reusable bags. They were doing it on their own. We want to be able to reinvest in other ways that are more environmentally impactful."
In a letter to customers about the change, Don Sussman, president of Stop & Shop's New York Metro Division, announced his company would donate $10,000 to The Nature Conservancy on Long Island. The Conservancy, unaware of the donation at the time Stop & Shop's letter was written, declined the offer.
Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Kara Jackson said the donation was declined to avoid rumors and confusion. "We did not want to give the false impression that the Nature Conservancy was involved in Stop & Shop's decision," Jackson said. "That is not where the Nature Conservancy stands."
Local environmental groups have been frustrated by the change, saying the company's policy reversal could have tangible consequences.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Then Stop & Shop decides to donate to environmental groups, who turn it down, because they can't get a nickle to make them selves feel good.
Liberalism is all about feelings AND a mental disorder.
The horror!
turn down 10000 over nickels - crazy
Their FB page is priceless now.
What gets me is the commenters who whine that now that they aren’t getting a freakin NICKEL, they will stop bringing their cloth bags and demand plastic bags. What kind of stupid logic is that?
I’ve done cloth bags for years. It’s just the sensible thing to do. Nobody had to pay me a nickel to do it. SHEESH.
Reusable bags made out of fabric have been linked to the speading of bacteria on food which has been known to make people sick. And if people wash such bags then they have to take into account the carbon footprint of both the washing machine and possible use of hot water. Possible envirnomental unfriendly washing detergent going down the drain must also be considered. And then some people probably use a dryer to dry them.
So the green movement needs to do its homework before alarming people.
The irony is that with trees in abundance and oil so expensive that it makes plastic less economical, biodegradable paper bags are probably going to end up being cheaper anyway. LOL.
Good point.
Consumers Exercising Free Choice: The thing the lib left fears most.
They way this was set up, it took forever to get the 5 cents.
My time was worth way more than that!
I gave it up years ago.
A 5 cent rebate. Wow. That would have been something in say 1920.
It's probably best to not be 100% pure on the issue. Use the cloth bags for well packaged things like cans or boxes and use single use bags for leaky, potentially messy items like meat, produce and milk (one leaky bottle can mess up the outsides of dozens of others in the case).
Good point. My reservation is that human error can put the wrong stuff in the wrong kind of bag. But flexibility is good, common-sense approach.
They haven’t done the rebate for months, here in MA.
Oh my God, the world will surely end now!
You people are heartless! All you want is your filthy capitalist profit and your plastic bags choking the landfills and all the dead baby polar bears and the dead baby harp seals too except for the ones the baby polar bears eat, and all the climate change caused by plastic shopping bags. Save Mother Gaia! Death to the oppressor! Che LIVES!!
Anyone want to join my revolutionary committee? We're meeting at the Olde Country Buffet at 3:30 PM. I want to get in line while there's still some red jello salad left. I'll be the guy with the stack of cloth shopping bags.
That’s the right way to go about it...flexibility and enlightened self interest. Cloth bags are awesome for cans and jars because they’re sturdier, and the large, soft sided cooler bags are superb for getting chilled goods home in the summer heat.
If the Left is so gung ho for folks to use them, they should be pointing out things that make folks WANT to use them, not force by one means or another. Most folks will cheerfully take up with something they perceive as a personal benefit.
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