Heavy duty plastic bags might work great if you always keep them in your car.
But I live in NYC where you carry everything by hand -- and people certainly aren't always carrying empty bags with them, the way you might if you had a trunk.
There are two supermarkets I go to where they don't have paper bags, but will charge you $0.25 to $0.45 for a heavy duty plastic bag (two sizes).
I'd say that about a third of the time the person in front of me buys between 1 to 3 of them.
So at least at those locations, the overall usage of plastic has gone way, way up compared to the old thin plastic bags.
Heavy duty plastic bags might work great if you always keep them in your car.
But I live in NYC where you carry everything by hand -- and people certainly aren't always carrying empty bags with them, the way you might if you had a trunk.
There are two supermarkets I go to where they don't have paper bags, but will charge you $0.25 to $0.45 for a heavy duty plastic bag (two sizes).
I'd say that about a third of the time the person in front of me buys between 1 to 3 of them.
So at least at those locations, the overall usage of plastic has gone way, way up compared to the old thin plastic bags.