Traders offer buy-back plan to shift shoppers to jute bags

Shopkeepers will provide jute bags to customers at Rs.5 and Rs.10 and will buy them back for Rs.5.5 and Rs.10.5 respectively

Market associations in the city have come up with a buy-back plan to promote the use of jute bags and discourage polythene bags.

Vendors said the move is aimed at saving customers from inconvenience due to the implementation of the polythene ban from January 22. (Burhaan Kinu/HT Photo)

Under the plan, shopkeepers will provide jute bags of 2-kg capacity and 5-kg capacity to customers at Rs.5 and Rs.10 and will buy them back for Rs.5.5 and Rs.10.5 respectively.

Vendors said the move is aimed at saving customers from inconvenience due to the implementation of the polythene ban from January 22.

The distributors’ association of Noida and Harola market association held a meeting on Saturday and decided to promote the use of jute bags.

Vendors at a weekly vegetable market alone use over 15,000 polythene bags per day. During the meeting, vendors said they had no choice as residents do not bring their own bags.

However, they decided to implement the buy-back plan in the meeting as it was beneficial to retailers as well as customers.

Sushil Singhal, president of the distributors’ association of Noida, said, “The buy-back scheme will help maintain the flow of jute bags in the markets and customers will always come to a market with their own bag. We have come up with this plan to bring down the use of polythene.”

He said that all markets in the city will comply with the state government’s order banning use of polythene. The buy-back scheme will be helpful to shoppers who forget to bring jute bags with them. It will also resolve the issue of providing carry bags for retailers, he added.

“We aim to promote the use of jute bag and make it a habit among customers. Traders will urge customers to bring jute/cloth bags from home or buy a jute bag from them and return the same later. Retailers found using polythene will be handed over to the police,” Singhal said.

“This is a good initiative by traders to phase out polythene bags. It is also the responsibility of visitors to the market to support retailers in doing away with polythene by always carrying a jute bag when they go shopping,” said RC Pandey, a resident of Sector 19.