Cordata Neighborhood Shops on Six Months After Plastic Bag Ban

Over Meridian, through the Cordata neighborhood and around the roundabouts shoppers make their way to the Cordata Community Food Co-Op—but not without reusable bags at hand. It has been six months since Bellingham put the Single Use Bag Ordinance or “bag ban” into effect and local employees say customers have responded well to the change.

 

“I think that people see the value in it and it’s definitely decreased our use of paper bags,” said co-op employee Nate Wright. “People are definitely using their own bags more than ever or just making due without one because they don’t really need it,” he said. “People have reacted, for the most part, positively to it.”

 

A “consumer-owned” company offering local and organic products, Wright said the Co-Op’s shoppers are among the minority of people who didn’t complain about the ban at the beginning. “For our customer base I think we’ve had a positive response to it,” he said. Typical customer complaints surround the 5 cent fee but are “nothing more than a grumble.”

 

Co-Op shopper Allie Tissot confessed that she is less supportive of the 5 cent fee, but she is not one to grumble about the ban. “I’m for it, honestly, because I don’t think [plastic bags] are necessary and they’re terrible for the environment,” she said.

 

Although she admitted it was difficult to adapt to the change when the ordinance first became effective in August 2012, the decrease in plastic bags in the environment is worth the challenge. “I was kind of irritated at first because it is a little inconvenient, but once you get used to it it’s nice.”

 

Across the street in Cordata Center, Cost Cutter employee Scott Edwards noticed the agreeable responses from customers as well. “It’s been a lot better than I thought. I thought I’d get a lot more negativity and people just would start revolting,”he said. “For the most part most people have been pretty receptive about it and bringing their own bags.”

 

Unlike the Co-Op, Cost Cutter customers are not “owners” of the company so Edwards was surprised that the store didn’t experience a greater financial impact. While other surrounding cities such as Lynden and Ferndale still offer plastic bags some customers decide to shop out of town, but that “didn’t really affect [finances] as much as I thought it would,” he said.

 

Meanwhile at the Co-Op, members were already accustomed to a life of reusable bags. Wright said the ban “hasn’t had any effect on us financially because we never used plastic bags. We’ve always offered paper bags so there was no financial offset for us there.” The store’s reason its original lack of plastic bags? “They were always seen as a single use item that ends up in landfills, never biodegrades,” he said.

 

Tissot agreed with the Co-Op’s decision to only provide paper bags and the city’s ban on plastic bags. “I mean they’re awful,” she said. When asked about whether or not other cities should adopt the ordinance she replied with a firm “Yes. I think more people should implement it...it’s not that hard to just bring reusable bags.”