Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania eliminating plastic bags after pilot program in Lawrenceville
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Plastic bags will soon be a thing of the past at Goodwill stores across southwestern Pennsylvania.
The company announced this week that it plans to eliminate the use of plastic bags to help reduce waste.
Andrew Marano, the vice president of Donated Goods and Retail, said its store in Lawrenceville was a pilot program for the idea. It removed plastic bags last year to see how shoppers would adjust.
"Shoppers in Lawrenceville were very easy to adapt to the program and they loved it. So it worked really well here," Marano said.
Plastic bags will officially be eliminated from 34 stores across the region on March 15. Marano said customers can instead use boxes or reusable bags. They will also have reusable bags for sale for $1 in their stores.
"We like to say at Goodwill, we've been green since 1902. Recycling is one of the major things that we do, obviously repurposing through the items that we sell through our Goodwill stores as well," Marano said. "This is just kind of the next step in our evolution towards being more sustainable as an organization."
Marano said last year, Goodwill was able to recycle over 56 million pounds of waste out of local landfills.
"That's everything, including everything we sold through our store system," Marano said.
A plastic bag ban will also go into effect in the city of Pittsburgh in April. City Council took a vote last year to switch from plastic to paper bags.
"On average, plastic bags are used for 12 minutes and then they're gone forever. There's so many reasons (to ban plastic bags) for our quality of life and our neighborhoods, for our public health and for future generations to be able to do something to clean up our neighborhoods and to just make Pittsburgh a better place to live," said city council member Erika Strassburger, who represents the city's 8th District.
KDKA-TV talked to some Goodwill shoppers on Friday about their thoughts on the ban.
"I don't know why it's taken so long," Lois Harder said.
"Anything to save the trees," said Angela Jones, another customer.
Leah Bortz said she's been using reusable bags for years.
"It's always surprising to see how much plastic you're using on things that you consume, so when you start thinking about that, it's a little crazy," Bortz said. "I've been a lifelong thrifter so I love finding the little treasures and if we can eliminate plastic when we're doing it, then great."
The ban in the city of Pittsburgh will affect all businesses and restaurants. Customers will have to bring their own bags or pay 10 cents for a paper bag at stores. Restaurants will also have to switch to paper bags for takeout orders.
