Assorted Afflatuses

Like the three dollar Starbucks caffè latte of yore, the three dollar reusable grocery bag has taken the nation by storm. In the now, to be hip is to be eco-chic. Anya Hindmarch proved that in late 2007 when her "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" tote became an instant hit, despite being nothing more than an ordinary canvas tote bag with the aforementioned phrase emblazoned on the side.

Thus, in a bid to stay on the cutting edge of eco-chicness, a number of organizations have deployed incentives designed to encourage consumers to shy away from their single-use grocery bags and, instead, opt for the more environmentally conscious reusable alternative. Whole Foods, for one, decided to stop providing its customers plastic bags. Other chains, such as Swedish housewares retailer IKEA, have opted to charge customers a nickel for each single-use bag at checkout.

Let me begin by making a few disclosures. First, I love Whole Foods. I usually make at least one trip a week to my local Whole Foods Market location. Second, I love IKEA. Ingvar Kamprad should receive an award for being such a brilliant and wonderful person. Third, I believe the world would be a more sustainable — albeit only very slightly more sustainable — if shoppers brought their own reusable grocery bags to the store.

Yet, I would characterize the efforts of Whole Foods and IKEA as feeble and pointless, so far as weaning consumers off plastic bags goes.

Whole Foods accomplishes virtually nothing by only eliminating plastic bags. Sure, paper bags are recyclable. Paper bags also require far more energy to manufacture than paper bags. Therefore, in terms of environmental impact, means paper bags begin life having already done more to kill polar bears than their plastic brethren. Further, just because paper bags can be recycled does not mean customers will actually recycle them.

Without a doubt, a Whole Foods shopper probably has a higher propensity to recycle than John Q. Consumer, but keeping single-use paper bags on offer still puts thousands of bags in landfills.

If, on the other hand, Whole Foods took a European approach, and offered customers no complementary bags whatsoever, I have no doubt everyone would migrate very quickly to reusable bags. What's more, Whole Foods would probably make a killing on its line of high-margin reusable grocery bags, made from recycled plastics, naturally.

IKEA does no better with its nickel-a-bag initiative. Even the prototypical cash-strapped twenty-something shopping for an inexpensive set of flatware probably won't mind parting with a nickel or two to carry her assemble-yourself BENNO CD tower to the car. A nickel is not enough motivation.

Charge $5, on the other hand, and I suspect far fewer people will buy and use one of IKEA's much-promoted reusable blue bags.

People respond to incentives. But some incentives encourage more of a response than others.