Jan 2, 2017
plastic bag law goes into effect
The new law requiring supermarkets to charge 0.10nis per plastic bag is now in effect. Supermarkets are, for now, giving out to shoppers subsidized multi-use bags - the amount of which depends on how much you purchased, though you have the ability to buy more.
Here are my initial thoughts, from my one experience in the supermarket since it went into effect:
1. it is still new and will take time for people to get used to and for the system to get the kinks out
2. very strange but they only charge the 10 agurot for the shopping bags at checkout. if you take vegetables and bag them in the bags located by the veggies, you don't pay for those bags. I asked the cashier, and she confirmed that.
Usually those bags are flimsier and don't have handles, so shoppers wont really take those bags in bulk to bag their groceries, but it seems almost pointless, from the perspective of saving the environment, to charge for these plastic bags to minimize usage but not to charge for the other plastic bags.
3. the reusable bags Osher Ad was giving out were ok, but I couldnt really fit much in there. 3 bags for what I spent was not enough. After a couple of shopping trips though I will likely have enough of these bags accumulated and will bring them with me.
4. The bags were ok, but they cant really handle anything heavy - in one of the bags I put a couple of heavier items and the handles ripped right off.
5. reports have it that people are not deterred by a 0.10nis charge for bags and are willing to pay that much and just continue using them. It seems that they should have written the law to charge more to actually have an effect. I recall that initially the law was going to be 0.50nis per bag but it was changed to get more support.
6. Osher Ad is giving out the reusable bags after you pay for your groceries - you take your receipt to the bag person and get the correct amount of bags. That means, for as long as this goes on, people are going to pay for their groceries, go get the bags, go back and bag the groceries. this will cause longer checkout delays. I don't know what other supermarkets are doing about this. I understand they can only give them out after because before you pay they don't know how many you should get for free. Still, it is causing frustration for shoppers to have to wait until after paying before being able to start bagging.
Here are my initial thoughts, from my one experience in the supermarket since it went into effect:
1. it is still new and will take time for people to get used to and for the system to get the kinks out
2. very strange but they only charge the 10 agurot for the shopping bags at checkout. if you take vegetables and bag them in the bags located by the veggies, you don't pay for those bags. I asked the cashier, and she confirmed that.
Usually those bags are flimsier and don't have handles, so shoppers wont really take those bags in bulk to bag their groceries, but it seems almost pointless, from the perspective of saving the environment, to charge for these plastic bags to minimize usage but not to charge for the other plastic bags.3. the reusable bags Osher Ad was giving out were ok, but I couldnt really fit much in there. 3 bags for what I spent was not enough. After a couple of shopping trips though I will likely have enough of these bags accumulated and will bring them with me.
4. The bags were ok, but they cant really handle anything heavy - in one of the bags I put a couple of heavier items and the handles ripped right off.
5. reports have it that people are not deterred by a 0.10nis charge for bags and are willing to pay that much and just continue using them. It seems that they should have written the law to charge more to actually have an effect. I recall that initially the law was going to be 0.50nis per bag but it was changed to get more support.
6. Osher Ad is giving out the reusable bags after you pay for your groceries - you take your receipt to the bag person and get the correct amount of bags. That means, for as long as this goes on, people are going to pay for their groceries, go get the bags, go back and bag the groceries. this will cause longer checkout delays. I don't know what other supermarkets are doing about this. I understand they can only give them out after because before you pay they don't know how many you should get for free. Still, it is causing frustration for shoppers to have to wait until after paying before being able to start bagging.
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Just get yourself one or two of the old-fashioned plastic stand-up, durable סלים and you'll be set for years.
ReplyDeleteIt is a dumb law, really. Much better suited to countries with small families and many singles, and divorced, not here where we love to eat and fill up a basket each week.
ReplyDeleteIf I regularly need over ten bags and my wife also does shopping sometimes, it means we both need to shlep many bags in each car.
It is inevitable that the reusable bags will tear and throwing them away will cause much more waste in landfill then plastic decomposable bags.
We reuse our shopping bags. Now we will need to buy more expensive garbage bags?
re #6: better to pay the 10 agurot per bag the first time to avoid that hassle and pick up the free bags for the future on the way out. seems worth 2 or 3 shekel one time to avoid that uncomfortable situation
ReplyDeleteI did my early adopter duty earlier, and want to thank a yummy cashier for helping my game the system. You get your first bag if your bill is between 101 and 250. After 250, you get two bags. If the bill is over 1000, five bags. So this young woman subtlety tells me that she can give me a bill each time I pass 101 (I saw the guy before me run back and forth to the bag stand and asked what the deal was). I got a bunch of crappy bags :-)
ReplyDeleteFWIW, these bags will not last many months, and will indeed make more waste in landfills. The handles do not wrap around the bottom like the 'original' reusable bags that were available a couple of years ago when it seemed we were all going to start using them voluntarily.
We've been using the large reusable bags from Best Market, and lately, Osher Ad, going back to when we moved here. It's much easier to pack and shlep a few large bags than a dozen or more small ones.
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