From July 3, 2018, customers who shop at Massy Stores will have to pay for plastic bags as the company tries to reduce the use of the most popular disposable carrying devices.

“We do not want to charge customers, but it is to act as a deterrent to minimize the use of plastic and help with the negative impact of plastics on the environment,” Massy’s local marketing officer Petra Plato told SEARCHLIGHT last Thursday.

She said that the July 3 implementation comes on International Plastic Bag Free Day. This day is dedicated to heightening awareness about plastic bags and the very real and pressing issues brought about by their use.

Plato said the imitative is not just a local one, but is being implemented across the region to reduce the use of the plastic bag in their supermarkets. She said customers are being encouraged to reduce the bags they already have or walk with any type of bags they wish to.

The store will sell its own branded types of reusable bags and while the single use plastic bag will still be on sale, Plato said that they have not yet decided what they will charge for them.“It will be less than 50 cents.

We are encouraging customers to reuse bags and it does not have to be a Massy bag, but any bag,” noted Plato.

However, she said there are instances where they will provide plastic bags for customers, such as for produce and meat.Also, the proceeds from the sale of the plastic bags will go into an environmental fund, from which local environmental organizations and initiatives will benefit.

“We are still working on seeing how we will distribute the money from the fund to environmental groups or campaigns in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” explained Plato.She added also that beginning on June 3 (World Environment Day) and running until the end of June, Massy will launch an in-store promotion where every Tuesday, persons who bring their own bags will be given an extra five Massy points on their purchases.Plastic bags remain for any where from 100 to 500 years before finally decaying completely and have a profound impact upon our environment.