Target and CVS launch incentives to discourage plastic bags

WASHINGTON (Oct. 19, 10:55 p.m. ET) -- Two major nationwide U.S. retailers have put into place incentives for shoppers that they expect will significantly reduce the amount of plastic shopping bags handed out at checkout lines.

There are 11 plastic bag bans in the U.S., six of which have been enacted this year. In addition, Toronto has a 5-cent fee on plastic carryout bags. Plastic bags have been a target of environmentalists and legislators, who view them as a major source of marine debris and litter.

The initiatives, announced separately by discount retailer Target Corp. and drug store chain CVS Caremark Corp., come less than five weeks before the busy holiday shopping season starts.

CVS, which has 7,000 pharmacies in the U.S., said that it will give customers $1 in credits toward merchandise for every four times they use a reusable bag and refuse a plastic bag at checkout. Customer must be members of the company’s free ExtraCare reward program and purchase a single, reusable Green Bag tag for 99 cents that must be presented at the time of purchase. There is a limit of one Green Bag tag scan per household per day.

The Woonsocket, R.I., company, which announced the program Oct. 12, said most of its stores will have the Green Bag tags available by the end of October and that it expects the initiative to be fully in place by the end of November. The 99-cent fee for the tags will be donated to a still-to-be-determined ecological cause.

Minneapolis-based Target, the fifth largest retailer in the U.S., with 1,700 stores, will give its customer 5 cents for every reusable bag they use at checkout, starting Nov. 1. In announcing the program Oct. 19, the company said that a pilot program earlier this year at 100 stores resulted in a 58 percent reduction in plastic bags handed out.

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