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<DIV>Moscow Food Co-op Offers Cash Incentive to Use Reusable Bags<BR><?/fontfamily> <BR><?fontfamily><?param Times New Roman>The Moscow
Food Co-op is now offering a refund of ten cents each time customers use their
own permanent shopping bag. This includes backpacks, bike panniers, string bags,
cloth bags, and anything else that is “permanent.” Recycled paper or plastic
bags will not qualify for the discount.<BR>“We respect those who bring in
recycled paper and plastic bags, but we want to encourage habits that will help
us get out of the cycle of using disposable bags and non-renewable resources,”
said Annie Hubble, the Co-op’s front end manager.<BR>Hubble was motivated to
introduce this incentive after reading about the topic of shopping bags in the
most recent issue of “Talking Trash,” published by Moscow’s Waste Reduction
Education Program.<BR>“The succinct and informational article about the reasons
why neither paper nor plastic are good choices so shocked me that I felt I had
to do something in my department at the Co-op,” Hubble said. Going without paper
or plastic isn’t so unusual, Hubble notes.<BR>“When I was a child, we all
automatically gathered shopping bags before we went shopping, because the shops
did not offer bags,” Hubble recalled.<?/fontfamily> <?fontfamily><?param Times New Roman><BR></DIV><?/fontfamily></BODY></HTML>