Ikea to ban plastic shopping bags in October
Ikea plans to stop offering plastic shopping bags to customers at its US stores by starting in October. Last year the retailer with the big blue box stories and the big blue shopping bags began selling reusable bags for 59 cents a piece, and started charging 5 cents for every single use plastic bag in an effort to cut down on the number of plastic bags used.
Ikea now says 92 percent of its customers went without the plastic bags, which paves the way for the company to stop offering them altogether. The move will likely be easier for Ikea than some retailers, since Ikea locations tend to sell large items like furniture along with smaller items like tasty Swedish cookies 
and Lingonberry preservers. Cookies aside, it's likely that most Ikea customers aren't going to try to cram their new couch or kitchen table in a plastic bag. And since Ikea stores tend to have large parking lots, you can probably just pull the car up to the door and drop your items into the back seat. 
But Ikea isn't alone in banning plastic bags. Whole Foods is also phasing them out, and cities and countries around the world are getting into the act as well. I even saw a sign at my local grocery store in Brooklyn encouraging people to buy or bring reusable bags because it might not be too long before plastic shopping bags are extinct.
[via Environmental Leader]
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