Figure 1: Distribution of Prince George’s grocery shoppers at seven major chains according to their carryout bag use, before and after the Better Bag Bill (%)

Fall 2019 (48 stores, 7,694 shoppers)	May 2024 (42 stores, 6,138 shoppers)

Source: Prince George’s Sierra Club Shopper Surveys, 2019 and 2024. Results are for all stores in the following grocery chains: Food Lion, Giant, Harris Teeter, Safeway, Shoppers, Wegmans, Weis Markets.

• These dramatic increases in the share of shoppers using reusable bags or no bag were observed in every County Council District (Figure 2).        

Figure 2. Percent of shoppers using a reusable bag or no bag, 2019 and 2024, by council district

• The response of shoppers at the three international chains was even greater, while shoppers at Aldi and Lidl continued their high resort to reusable bags or no bag (Figure 3). Some of the international stores declined to offer paper bags, and only sold reusables.

Figure 3. Percent of shoppers using a reusable bag or no bag, 2019 and 2024, by grocery store category

• Adding a minimum charge for paper and reusable bags to the City of Laurel’s existing plastic carryout bag ban incentivized shoppers to shift from single-use paper bags to reusables or no bag (Figure 4).
  • When Laurel grocery stores were surveyed in 2019, before any carryout bag policy was in effect, 87% of shoppers at the main grocery chains were taking plastic bags; only 12% were using reusable bags or no bag.
  • The City banned single-use plastic carryout bags as of January 2022. Most stores then provided complimentary paper bags at checkout. A whopping 68% of shoppers took paper bags, which have a major environmental and environmental justice footprint. The share of shoppers using reusable bags or no bag rose to only 31%.
  • In January 2024, the City added to the plastic bag ban a mandatory minimum charge of 10 cents for paper and reusable bags, which reduced paper bag use by more than half (to 32%) and raised the share of shoppers using reusable bags or no bag to 66%.

Figure 4. Adding a minimum charge for paper and reusable bags in Laurel Incentivized a switch to reusable bags or no bag

(Percent of shoppers using a reusable bag or no bag)

                       2019                  2022               2024

These findings are based on the Prince George’s Sierra Club’s observational surveys of shoppers’ carryout bag use as they exited grocery stores across the County in the fall of 2019 and in May 2024.[1] Trained volunteers observed the bag choices of shoppers for an hour at each grocery store’s exit on a weekend day. They tallied for each exit whether shoppers had single-use plastic carryout bags, reusable carryout bags, paper carryout bags, only unbagged merchandise, or a combination of these categories. The definition of the four main categories shown in the pie and bar charts are as follows:

Any reusable bag: Shopper has only reusable carryout bags, reusable carryout bags and other single-use paper or plastic carryout bags, or reusable bags and unbagged merchandise
Plastic bag or paper/plastic mix: Shopper has only plastic carryout bags, plastic carryout bags and other unbagged merchandise, or both plastic and paper carryout bags with or without unbagged merchandise.
Paper bag: Shopper has only paper carryout bags or paper carryout bags and unbagged merchandise
No bag: Shopper has no carryout bags, only unbagged merchandise.

The level of observation was an adult shopper with a carryout bag or merchandise; bags carried by children were attributed to the adult they were with. A shopping cart pushed by one or more people was counted as a single observation.

Stores of the following chains were surveyed:

For more information, contact martha.ainsworth@mdsierra.org.