For the second year, cities throughout the San Diego region, local community groups, environmental organizations, and the County of San Diego have proclaimed the third Thursday of December as a “Day Without a Bag”. The purpose of the event is to educate and raise awareness of the need to keep communities, waterways, and beaches clean via litter prevention, and to promote a ‘greener’ holiday season through reuse.

    On Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011, businesses and residents will promote and benefit from using reusable bags for their holiday and regular shopping needs instead of standard single-use plastic and paper bags.

    To help their shoppers remember, several grocers such as Albertsons, Trader Joe’s and Vons are providing drawings for $25 gift certificates to those shoppers using a reusable bag in their stores.  “Similar types of positive incentive promotions for reusable bags have proven that shoppers have responded positively and some grocers have indicated a 40-60% decrease in disposable bag usage. Clearly it’s an effective promotion,” stated Bolden.