CLEVELAND — If you go grocery shopping at stores in Cuyahoga County starting Wednesday, don't expect to use those blue plastic bags.
That's because Cuyahoga County's single-use plastic bag ban will go into effect to start the new year. The county has delayed enforcing the ban until July of 2020.
Although Cleveland later opted out of the county's program, the city still plans to join the initiative by July of next year. Critics of single-use plastic say it is bad for the environment, especially with the growing threat of worldwide climate change.
In December, Giant Eagle announced it will eliminate single-use plastic bags at all of its stores by 2025. The Pittsburgh-based chain operates more than 400 supermarkets and convenience stores across five states, including roughly 60 in Northeast Ohio alone. Giant Eagle is already set to phase out single-use plastic in its Cuyahoga County stores as well as Columbus suburb Bexley to comply with bans passed by legislatures.
Giant Eagle spokesman Dan Donovan tells 3News that the move to eliminate plastic bags is just the first step in making the company greener.
"In the coming weeks, we're going to be introducing an alternate straw to give customers an option that isn't always single-use plastics. Additionally by mid-2020, we're going to offer a single-serve boxed water to really start having an impact on the single-use plastic water bottles we also see leaving our stores," Donovan says.
If you don't have a reusable bag, it will cost you ten cents to use a paper bag. That fee will be waived if you have government assistance.