IKEA Will Start Charging Customers Five Cents For Plastic Bags - Inquirer [View All]

[hatrack]

Customers leave Ikea's 29 U.S. stores every day with Nordic-named housewares and assemble-it-yourself furniture, but the Swedish home-furnishings retailer wants to see shoppers walk out with one less thing: a plastic bag.

Ikea International A/S, which has its U.S. headquarters in Conshohocken, announced yesterday that it would start charging customers a nickel for every plastic bag they use to carry their booty of Glasklar dishes and Bibbi Snurr blankets. Proceeds from the surcharge will go to an environmental conservation group.

"We really feel the timing is right," said Pernille Lopez, president of Ikea North America. "It's a small step, but we feel it's good for us as a company, and it reduces our impact on the environment."

Ikea's U.S. stores went through 70 million plastic bags last year - and officials want to cut that in half over the first year of the "bring-your-own-bag" policy. That would equate to about 1.5 million trees being planted - an idea that got a favorable response from customers Ikea surveyed, Lopez said.

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http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/16744081.htm