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A grocery market in BC that designed "embarrassing" plastic bags in an effort to reduce public use of single-use plastics has received an unexpected response.
Rather than shoppers shying away from the plastic bags that are inscribed with businesses like "Dr. Toews' Wart Ointment Wholesale" and "The Colon Care Co-op," the East West Market in Vancouver has been led to produce canvas bags to satisfy increased demand.
"Over 1,000,000 plastic bags are used every minute, most of which are filled once then discarded. So we designed our bags to stop people from taking them," says a video released by the market on June 6.
Since the release of their new bags, East West Market has been the focus of several articles talking about their new initiative.
However, according to the National Public Radio, the idea somewhat backfired when people began buying the market's plastic bags, for the five-cent charge, just for the designs.
Despite the reported increase in purchases of plastic bags, East West Market says that the rate customers bringing reusable bags into the store has "surged to 96%—reducing the use of plastic bags in our store!"
"We’re blown away by the global response to these plastic bags and how our local grocery store sparked an international conversation about reducing single-use plastic," they said in a Facebook post.
The attention has also led them to develop canvas bags with the same humourous designs to discourage single-use plastic bags in the store, which they hope to phase out completely.