A friend of mine contacted Target about recycling its bags. This was Target's response:
We appreciate your concern for protecting the environment. That's why
Target shopping bags are made from recycled materials. Many of the
products we sell are packaged in recyclable material, as well.
We encourage you to recycle our bags and packaging after use. You can
check with your local government or recycling center to learn more about
recycling in your community. It's a great idea to re-use bags, too. If you
want to bring back your own bags, our team members will be happy to refill them with your new purchases.
Great products. Great value. And a great shopping experience every time
you visit our stores. That's what Target is all about, and we're glad you
took the time to help us improve. I'll make sure to share your comments
with our Store Operations team. Please let us know if we can be of any
help in the future!
Thanks for shopping with us. We'll see you again soon at Target.
Sincerely,
James
Target Guest Relations
www.target.com
I don’t think young people “get” recycling. I guess we really are a Fast Food Nation (FFN) – it is nothing to them to throw away plastic bags. Of course, I am a recycler. I grew up in the 70s when we had the energy crisis and the crisis of conscience about pollution. (I’ll never forget the public service announcement with the American Indian turning to the camera with a single tear on his cheek.)
I was in the Longmont Target, shopping the other day (despite some obvious overtones of FFN there). I had brought the 4 bags I received the last time I shopped there (4 bags for 8 items!). The bags said they were recyclable –in the middle of the circling arrows was a number 4 which meant they were recyclable in some cities west of the Mississippi and south of the Mason Dixon line—but they were not the same type of bag as the supermarket bags I know I can recycle at Albertson’s supermarket in Boulder (a 2 in the middle of circling arrows). So, I was trying to be a good world citizen and reuse the darn things.
I was trotting out of the store, having not impressed the clerk with my reuse of his employer’s bags (he stuffed 4 items in a single bag and handed me the other 3 unused bags with a smirk), when I saw the customer service desk. I thought, surely Target corporate has a recycling program. I walked up to a young girl at the counter who was just getting off the phone. I smiled. “Does Target recycle their bags?”
She shook her head. “Sorry we don’t.”
“Do you know of a place where I can recycle these bags?” She shook her head.
A clerk next to her at the desk tossed out, “I just throw them away!”
I looked more closely at these women and realized that they were barely women. They looked about 15. I then told them about Albertson’s possibly recycling them. “Let others know!” I called over my shoulder, even though my heart was sinking. Yikes! Throw them away? You’ve got to be kidding me. What has the world come to? I felt I was interacting with an alien race. Was it just because I was in Longmont? It is true Longmont’s recycling center is not as full service as Boulder’s, but they did have a fairly robust curbside service. It must be Corporate America, that scary entity my mother always warned me about. Well, I’d show them.
Last night I went to Office Max (in Boulder) and purchased a case of recyclable printer paper. $30 – almost twice as much as the standard HP laser jet paper. But I was going to make a point. Vote with your feet (and your pocketbook), as they say. If Longmont, Colorado, Middle America, the Nation, is not yet ready to provide robust recycling programs, then I was going to show them that I, a citizen of said Nation, was very interested in buying recycled goods. Create a market. Yeah. That’s it! Maybe I’d even drive the price of recycled goods down. Ha!