IKEA shopping bag, originally uploaded by erminia

The Swedish low-cost furniture giant Ikea seems to be applying yet another Swedish custom to its American operations. From South New Jersey’s CourierPostOnline:

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.

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Ikea, which has its U.S. headquarters in suburban Conshohocken, announced Tuesday that it will 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.”

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Ikea’s U.S. stores, including the one on Columbus Boulevard in Philadelphia, 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.

Ikea to charge for plastic shopping bags.

Ikea is just following what has been custom in Sweden for years. Most Swedish stores charge for either plastic or paper bags, which encourages shoppers to bring bags back with them for reuse.