Plastic bag ban hits Salinas

If you went grocery shopping Wednesday, it wasn’t an April Fools’ joke. April 1 was the first day shoppers in Salinas had to pay for a paper grocery bag after the plastic bag ban went into effect.

Shoppers at Star Market came prepared for the plastic bag ban, bringing in reusable bags of their own. It’s nothing new for Dawn Anderle, who brought her own basket to the market.

“I’ve been doing this for years,” she said. “So I always have a routine of keeping my basket by the door. Or in my car, bags in my car and then I always bring it in and I always recycle everything.”

And Anderle takes saving the environment to a new level.

“And I reuse my produce bags too as long as they’re clean; no reason to use them once and throw them away.”

But it’s almost a guessing game now for some shoppers. They judge how many bags they think they’ll have to buy to fit their groceries.

The average person goes through six grocery bags a week. With the new 10-cent charge per bag, that’s more than 31 bucks a year.

Over on Williams Road in east Salinas a sign posted outside La Princessa market is reminding shoppers to bring in their own bags. Even so, one shopper there says she was in a hurry and forgot her bags, and she wasn’t about to buy any.

“I think it’s nice to do for the environment, but it’s going to be costing you more buying the purchase bag,” said Jackie Garcia.

Garcia put her groceries in her trunk one by one, without any bag. She said it may take more time but it’s money saved.

“I have three kids and I just could use them (the money) for diapers or for food or for clothing anything else that you need,” said Garcia.

Salinas is one of the last cities on the Central Coast to implement the plastic bag ban. Monterey County just started enforcing its ban in the unincorporated areas last weekend. Santa Cruz County and cities there have had the ban for quite some time.