Overjoyed by paper step

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To the Editor:

I was overjoyed when I read that a market would take the risky initiative to place a fee on paper grocery bags. I remember when I was younger that a cashier would first greet my mother with a hello, ask her if she was able to find everything she was looking for, and then if she would like paper or plastic.

In the economic crunch that many businesses seem to be facing, it is now a request that the customer must make to receive paper bags. The reason behind this shift, as stated, is that a paper bag costs 6.5 more cents than a plastic bag, however, it is environmentally much more sensible. So it is a noteworthy step that Cronig’s Markets made to provide only paper bags. Now that they have decided to charge 5 cents per paper bags, customers will think twice before leaving their house about their choice of using reusable bags. Many stores local to my home have begun to offer a 5 cent return for plastic bags that are brought back to be used. This does not eliminate the use of plastic bags from landfills and other waste streams. I also think that people will think more about being charged an extra 5 cents as compared to receiving an extra 5 cents in return. For one reason or another, the human mind is more worried about not being charged extra than to perhaps be refunded. It is for these reasons and the positive benefit of paper to decompose that I give Cronig’s Market props for pricing paper. Nicole Cardish Poultney, Vermont