Stop & Shop to end single-use plastic bags at checkout in Connecticut

Stop & Shop has become the latest supermarket chain to announce the elimination of all single-use plastic bags at the checkout counters in its Connecticut stores.

Beginning on Thursday, the chain will begin providing free paper bags to its Connecticut shoppers, but will then charge a 10-cent fee on the paper bags beginning Sept. 3. Stop & Shop will also offer customers a free reusable bag if they bring in one or more single-use plastic bags for recycling during August.

Stop & Shop”™s announcement comes ahead of the Aug. 1 enactment of a new state law that will require a 10-cent fee on single-use plastic bags until June 30, 2021, when plastic bags will be banned entirely at checkout.

“We know that the environmental impact of plastics is something our customers and communities care about here in Connecticut, so we”™re eliminating single-use plastic bags well ahead of the state-mandated timeline,” Rudy DiPietro, senior vice president of operations at Stop & Shop.

Stop & Shop is the latest supermarket chain to forgo single-use plastic bags at checkout. In January, prior to the passing of the new state law, Big Y Foods Inc. announced that its supermarket chain will stop providing single-use plastic bags at its stores in 2020. The ShopRite chain has also announced the termination of its single-use plastic bag policy on Aug. 1, but did not offer any special incentives to transition shoppers from plastic bag usage.