KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Taking a world-wide problem into their own hands, the Chinatown Food Market is trying to do its part to help the local environment while cutting costs.
Recently the grocery store made the switch to charge five cents for plastic bags and 10 cents for paper bags.
The goal is to urge customers to bring their own bags or to purchase a reusable bag from the store.
"We just wanted to encourage people to conserve the number of bags they use and to be mindful of that," Chinatown Food Market manager Donny Lo said. "And then people start thinking about it and they start bringing their own bags."
It's a change many customers aren't too bothered by.
"I don't mind, because I didn't bring my own," shopper Dorris Jean Jones-Wilks said.
"I forgot my bag," fellow shopper Sophia Chea said. "They can charge me one or two bags for 10 cents you know, but it doesn't bother me."
If you don't want to pay the bag fee, you can use one of the cardboard boxes that are stacked up or bring your own bag in.
The local chapter of the Sierra Club is thrilled this store is enacting this policy.
"It's nice to see a community business taking some responsibility and giving us this little extra nudge that we need to start using reusable bags," Kevin Grooms, Chair of the Thomas Hart Benton Group for the Sierra Club, said.
Groom hopes this sets the example for other stores to follow suit.
"There would be less plastic almost instantly in our storm drains that gets into our waterways," he said.
While Missouri law prohibits cities from restricting plastic or paper bag usage, individual businesses are free to adopt different policies.
