Are you Aware? Do you Care?

I was thrilled when a few weeks ago I saw a sign on the door of my neighborhood grocery store, Food Bazaar, announcing a 5 cent refund for bags.  I thought this was terrific progress since it was this store, in particular, that I see people leaving with carts full of double plastic bags- there is hope!  But I still see tons of plastic bags leaving this store, so I went in to chat with the manager to see how things are going…

When I asked one woman who worked in the store if she thought people were taking advantage of the refund, she didn’t think so, saying that the people don’t like to bring the bags, and when I asked why, she said that maybe they don’t like to carry them.  My thought is that if they can remember to bring the granny cart in, they can remember to bring reusable bags, too.

Next, I chatted with the manager.  He said that he had to record of whether or not people were bringing in their own bags since it had only been a few weeks.  It seems that the whole situation is largely a matter of money.  They introduced the 5 cent incentive to try to cut down on the cost of buying plastic bags, which apparently is going up due to the increase in oil prices.  He also said that the point was to get them out of the environment (yay!)  but I do have doubts as to how much he really cares about that.  They were worried that people would steel sleeves of plastic bags and bring them in to take advantage of the refund.  Apparently there is a group of people who are very competitive and aggressive about collecting bottles and cans from other people’s garbage in order to get the money back from recycling.  I think this good, though- a win/win situation- bottles get recycled and entrepreneuring people get money!  Apparently it doesn’t work the same with the bags, though, because you can only get as many bag refunds as you need in your shopping order, which does make sense.

So the question remains- how can we get the people to bring in their own bags rather than use the plastic ones offered at the store?  Brian, a white male store manager who commutes by car from Long Island, thinks that it is not a priority on the minds of the people in this neighborhood.  They are struggling to survive- they are more concerned with being able to put food on the table than with paying attention to the impact that their plastic bag usage has on the environment.

But I wonder, how can we get them to care?  It doesn’t seem to me to have to be one or the other.  Maybe they are not aware of the impact- maybe they don’t care- but I would like to think that they just aren’t aware, yet.

How can we build awareness and caring in communities where this concept is new?  Brian says that his children come home from school and tell him what needs to be done for the environment, so I am wondering- if the schools in Long Island are teaching environmental awareness, are the schools in Bushwick and Ridgewood and East New York teaching it?  If so, are the children coming home and telling their parents how they can be more environmentally conscious?  Are they listening?  Is there something else we can do? How can we bring awareness?