Canvas bag confusion
Grocery store policies vary on reusable bags
Reusable canvas bags are packed with groceries at a Publix
DELRAY BEACH — Now that many of us are venturing back into grocery stores, there’s confusion at the checkout counter.
The canvas tote bag, hailed as a way to save the environment from plastic pollution, became a COVID-19 casualty at some grocery stores. Although the FDA says consumers are unlikely to get infected by shopping, many stores are telling visitors to leave their bags at home.
There’s a bewildering assortment of policies. Many Trader Joe’s stores no longer allow customers to bring their own bags. Fresh Market and Target let shoppers bring them in only if they pack them up themselves at checkout.
It’s the
“In stores same at Whole Foods. that do allow reusable bags, we may ask that customers who wish to use them bag their groceries themselves,” a Whole Foods spokeswoman said.
Some stores do allow you to bring your own, including Doris Italian Markets, Walmart and Publix.
Publix asks customers to wash their bags after each shopping trip.
Grocery stores have responded to COVID-19 with an assortment of new measures, including Plexiglas separations for check-out clerks, one-way aisles, reduced hours and mandatory masks for customers and employees.
But does coronavirus linger on canvas bags? A study published in April in the New England Journal of Medicine found the virus can remain on surfaces up to 72 hours after exposure.
And even if the bags aren’t carrying coronavirus, studies have shown users rarely wash them, allowing bacteria, e. coli and other pathogens to fester.
Still, how do we know plastic bags are more sanitary? Stores’ plastic bags may have touched many more hands than a shopper’s canvas bag, said Lindsay Zukerberg, of Delray Beach, who encourages environmental awareness on her Instagram account, lowwaste_linds.
She still brings her canvas bags when she goes food shopping but said she sympathizes with stores’ efforts to stay clean.
“I have to accept that some measures need to be taken to be as safe as possible,” said Zukerberg, 24. “As much as I believe using my own bags is actually the safer alternative to plastic bags, I respect the stores’ decisions. I continue to bring my bags and will bag my own groceries in my car if need be.”