By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
Change a habit and change the world is the motto of Sustainable Princeton’s BYOBag campaign, which launched Thursday evening.
One bag and one customer at a time, the group is trying to change people’s habit of using plastic bags when they are shopping and running errands.
Local businesses and kids are helping to lead this charge against plastic and encouraging the use of reusable bags. For businesses, reusable bags are a win-win—owners need to purchase less materials and customers have less packaging to deal with when they get home.
One business on the reusable bandwagon is a local dry cleaner that offers recyclable garment bags for customers.
”Packaging is important, we were looking for something that keeps the integrity of the pressing,” said owner Lorrie Janick, owner of Pristine Fine Dry Cleaners on Spring Street. “It enables them to use it as a carrier to get their dry cleaning to us and then it becomes a garment bag.”
The bags, which hold six or seven garments, are created from a black recyclable nylon and are personalized with an identification card in the front pocket. The bags are offered to regular customers, those on the delivery and drop off service. “We began with the customers on our delivery service, those who are receiving packaging from us two times a week,” she said. “It’s personalized and people like it, it’s heavier than the clear plastic.”
The bags are popular, but not every single one comes back.
”People see it and they like it,” she said of the program that has been in place since October 2010. “It hasn’t been 100 percent, some people want to see what’s in the bag, but I would say 95 percent of the people who try the bag stick with it.”
The bags are very popular with downtown businesspeople who pop in to drop their garments off. “They put it on the counter, smile and leave, since it’s personalized we know what’s in the bag and whose it is,” she said. “People feel like they are participating in recycling in some way, shape or form and it makes (drop off and pick up) quicker for them.”
Customers are also recycling other items, such as sending their wire hangars back, which are then reused. Using the same bag and hangars over and over provides savings for the business.
”I’m the one with the savings, I don’t have to buy plastic bags again and again,” said Ms. Janick. “It’s a win-win, they don’t have to deal with it in their home and I don’t have to buy plastic.”
The reusable bags cost Pristine about $6.50 each, “It’s an investment, because the poly bags are three cents,” she said. “That’s why I started with the delivery customers because I knew over the course of a year it would balance out.”
There are a few Princeton merchants that have been encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags and recycle those that they do take, for many years. “For over 40 years, we have been giving our customers 10 cents back for each bag they bring for groceries,” says Jennifer Murray, general manager of Princeton’s Whole Earth Center, who said she sees a lot more young people bringing bags. “We are seeing a lot more styles of bags, it’s a sun way to strike up conversation.”
Conversation is one benefit of a reusable bag, so is advocating for a cause.
”I absolutely believe in using cloth bags, they carry more, can be laundered and you can match your bag to your purpose,” said Tari Pantaleo of Plainsboro, who was in attendance at the launch event at Hinds Plaza on Thursday evening.
Customers bringing their own bags saves business owners money since they don’t have to purchase bags.
Whole Earth Center pays between one and seven cents for bags for its customers to use in store. The store also gives customers 10 cents for every bag they bring and use. This saves about 144,500 bags annually or about 12,041 bags monthly.
The campaign isn’t just to educate consumers.
”Part of our work is educating merchants,” said Daniel Harris, a member of the BYOBag steering committee who was wearing a burlap bag around his neck with a sign that read, “This bag is reusable. I am what I shop with.” “It’s such an obvious thing to do; it’s educational and voluntary rather than legislative and mandatory.”
Similar programs are in various stages of development in Hillsborough and Somerset, said Mr. Harris.
Sustainable Princeton is following the lead of San Francisco, the first city in the United States to ban plastic bags. Countries such as Bangladesh, China and Ireland have banned and/or taxed the use of plastic bags, along with Rwanda, Israel, India Tanzania, South Africa and Taiwan.
At the party last week, teens and tweens involved Stone Soup Circus made bags the focus of poignant vignettes and even costumes.
”We came up with the idea that it would be the earth versus the plastic bags,” said Nora Schultz, a 14-year-old borough resident and Stone Soup performer.
”There wasn’t a clear winner, but that was OK,” continued troupe-mate Natasha Shatzkin, a 13-year-old borough resident. “We wanted to show that this is an apparent fight between plastic and the earth.”
Another teen is so passionate about the idea of reducing plastic bags she made it her senior community service project at Princeton Day School.
”I was on a trip abroad (and learned) a tax was placed on bags and I realized how changing our bag practices is easy to help the environment and my community,” said 18-year-old Ariel Multak, who devoted her senior internship to the BYOBag campaign. “I’ve learned a lot about activism, how to reach out to an audience, get a specific message across, how to simplify a message and how to approach people in a way they will be receptive to your cause.”
The event kicked off a yearlong campaign to encourage residents to bring their own cloth or recycled bags when purchasing food, clothes, greeting cards and any items that are typically put in plastic or paper bags and thrown away after one use.
”We are trying to change a habit that is harmful to our environment and also wasteful. Americans use an average of 500 plastic bags per person a year and unfortunately only 3 percent are recycled. Our goal is to save a million plastic bags from landfills and the oceans this year by encouraging people to bring their own bags when they shop,” says Sophie Glovier, the chairperson of the BYOBag Campaign for Sustainable Princeton.
Some people need a little convincing to adapt to reusable bags.
”I’m glad I converted my daughter to reusable bags,” said Lori Pantaleo of West Windsor, who came to the kickoff celebration to see the documentary “Bag It,” in the Princeton Public Library’s Community Room. “She discovered the contents of six plastic bags fit onto one canvas bag.”
Both the Borough and the Township passed a BYOBag resolution earlier this year.
McCaffrey’s Market provides four cents a bag and also offers a place for shoppers to recycle their bags on site. Steve Carney, McCaffrey’s general manager, says, “in 2010, McCaffrey’s customers ‘saved’ over 300,000 plastic bags.”

