Stop & Shop: No More Reusable Bag Rebate in Greenburgh

This article was reported and written by Michael Woyton and Krista Madsen.

Grocery shoppers trekking to the edge of Tarrytown with their reusable bags in tow were surprised to find over the weekend that our big new Stop & Shop was no longer giving back 5 cents per bag.

Stop & Shop New York Metro spokeswoman Arlene Putterman said Monday it was a regional policy decision to stop the rebate as a test.

"We had been doing it for years," she said of the 5-cent incentive, "but there's really not much changing on the meter.

"We feel the program has reached a plateau," Putterman said.

She said the company will be making a donation of $10,000 to the environmental group Connecticut Forest and Park Association and will still be encouraging people to reuse plastic bags.

A posting about the change on Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow Patch's Facebook brought out the comments.

Richard Moore drew a hard line. "I won't bring my bags or shop there," he wrote.

Some of our neighbors thought the blow might be lessoned with an equal and opposite approach: charge 5 cents per plastic bag instead. 

Cynthia Goudas Semsel thought replacing a reward with a penalty might work better. "It's sad to get rid of the incentive, but I like the idea of charging instead. That would really make people bring their own!"

Others, not so much:

Nina Orville is hoping for no plastic at all. "We'll see how they respond to the burgeoning movement to ban plastic shopping bags when it effects the towns where their stores are located," Orville wrote.

"I bring my bags because it's the right thing to do, not for the nickel!" said Deb Taft.

What do you think? Will this change impact you? Share here.