Bag It?

Watch the story in the Feb. 23 show.

Paper or plastic? Shoppers often get asked this as they check out at the grocery store.

On average, an American uses 365 plastic bags each year. But at one local grocery store chain, you no longer get the option to pick. You can either bring your own bags, or you can purchase a paper one.

In the years since Aldi removed single-use plastic bags, consumers had to make do across the chain's 2,300 stores.

Aldi weighed its decision. According to Aldi CEO Jason Hart, the new policy removes nearly 9 million pounds of plastic from circulation each year.

Ray Kilcher says that the change has been a long time coming.

“They would talk about this for three years now, and Kroger and all the main restaurant chains would talk about, but they don't do anything about it,” he says.

With other chains hinting at similar initiatives, Aldi stands out as the first to turn words into action.

Kilcher has been using a reusable bag for years . He says that it's still holding up strong.

“I have my own bag,” he says. “It's a burlap bag, and it's a good size. It's got handles that I carry. Been using that for years now.”

But not everyone is on board with Aldi's new bag policy. Frustrated Redditor nolead89 expressed frustrations about the quality of the paper bags back in November 2023.

“I used four paper Aldi bags today, and none of them were very heavy, but three of them had their handles ripped. They are awful.”

Aldi paper bags saw a price adjustment with the plastic ban. New sturdier bags are now available at 12 cents each, up from 7 cents from the prior paper option.

Brynn Heitmeyer prefers using reusable plastic bags from the checkout lane to carry her groceries.

“I like that they're getting rid of plastic bags just for my personal preference,” she says. “I like the woven plastic reusable bag. It makes it much easier to carry a lot of items in one trip rather than stacking a lot of plastic bags on my arm to carry it up to my apartment.”

These bags run from $1 to $2.

Aldi's website says charging for bags saves money by avoiding the cost of the bag and cuts down on waste to help the environment by encouraging people to switch to reusables.

Heitmeyer says: “Having to pay 25 cents for a paper bag or a dollar for a reusable bag because  single-use plastic bags are not available -- it's just a little tad of an annoyance that actually makes you think about, oh, next time I need to be more proactive.”

So while Aldi's policy is in the bag, consumers wait to see if other chains will follow.