Supermarket chain to stop offering plastic bags in Aug.
Big Y Foods has announced it will eliminate singleuse plastic bags at the checkouts from its more than 80 supermarket locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts on Aug. 1 of this year, quicker than its original timetable.
That happens to be the same date that Connecticut shoppers who prefer plastic bags will be spending an extra dime for that right, according to a new state law.
Big Y has been complying with singleuse plastic bag bans in several Massachusetts communities since 2014.
Coming off of recent changes to laws in various towns across the New England region, including many in Connecticut, Big Y has moved up its 2020 timeline to eliminate singleuse plastic at checkouts in all of its locations.
“At Big Y, beyond providing great quality, great prices and great customer service, we also try to be smart about the resources and energy we use,” said Richard D. Bossie, Big Y Senior Vice President of Operations and Customer Experience. “By working with our shoppers, we can further reduce consumption to make a difference in and around the tightknit communities that we serve across New England.”
For those shoppers who do not bring their own shopping bags to Big Y, beginning on Aug. 1, a 10cent charge per paper bag will be added to their bill.
Big Y is not the first big chain to make this move. National chains Costco and Aldi, which both have stores in Connecticut, do not provide free singleuse plastic bags. They also charge for plastic bags.
Big Y is reacting, in part to the fact that a multitude of towns in Connecticut — and the state itself — have either passed legislation or are in the process of on plastic bag bans.
The statewide legislation signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont allows shoppers to continue to use plastic bags, if they like, for two more years until a total ban is called for, starting on Aug. 1, 2021.
But starting this Aug. 1, or in a few short weeks, each plastic bag in Connecticut will come with a 10cent tax under the statewide legislation.
The legislation also allows any towns that have passed ordinances on their own on plastic bag bans to supersede state law, as long as the town ordinances are equally or more restrictive than the state law passed.
Across the state, Hamden, Mansfield, Middletown, New Canaan, New Britain, Norwalk, Stamford, Weston, Greenwich, Westport and Branford, among others, have passed bans on singleuse plastic bags.
Those who follow the issue in the state say about 30 towns are in the process of either finalizing or getting close to finalizing their own bans on plastic bags — and/or charging fees for their use.
Many towns who have passed plastic bag bans on their own will not have their bans go into effect for awhile — many have set Jan. 1, 2020 — to give grocers time to use up inventory.
Those towns, Connecticut League of Conservation Voters Deputy Director Amanda Schoen said Thursday, will operate under the state law guidelines — meaning a dime per plastic bag come Aug. 1 of this year — until the date of the local town ordinance takes effect.