Officials urge shoppers to remember reusable bags

Utah spends more than $1 million a year to landfill plastic bags, but Salt Lake City and County officials and Utah retailers are trying to cut that number.

Representatives of all three groups gathered at the state Capitol on Wednesday to launch the new "Remember Your Reusable Bag" initiative. The campaign was organized by the Utah Food Industry Association and the Utah Retail Merchants Association to educate consumers, increase use of reusable bags and identify the best practices for promoting reusable bags.

Dave Davis, vice president and general counsel for the UFIA and URMA, said the plastic bags used by Utahns are made from natural gas or oil, and they consume an energy equivalent of hundreds of barrels of oil every day.

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker said he has plenty of reusable bags, but the trick is remembering them. The "Remember Your Reusable Bag" campaign has created refrigerator magnets, air fresheners and parking lot signs to help remind shoppers to bring their reusable bags.

"Waste prevention is the most basic and best solution to our garbage problem," Becker said.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon cited the places where shoppers can keep bags handy. "You can keep them in your car, on your desk at work; you can even keep them in your pocket," he said, pulling a crumpled reusable bag out of his pocket.

He also expressed his concern about the nuisance of plastic bags. "If anybody has ever been on a cleanup along a river or a park, the first thing you see is piles and piles of plastic bags. They blow in the wind and get all over our community," Corroon said.

Ben Cook , marketing communications specialist for Associated Food Stores, said the association has distributed almost 200,000 reusable bags to its retail members to sell. He says an average-size reusable bag costs around a dollar, and most retailers offer a 5-cent credit to customers for using the bag. Other stores offer to donate the 5 cents to charity.

Some stores actually end up making a profit on reusable bags. Carrie Nanney, assistant to the vice presidents of Harmons, said Harmons stores have sold 89,000 bags in 2009 at $1 apiece. She adds that from May to August, Harmons gave out just under $20,000 in reusable bag credits, which means 400,000 reusable bags were used. That means customers are paying $89,000 for reusable bags but are only getting $20,000 back in savings.

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