The plastic bag ban for the Town of Palm Beach doesn’t go into effect until December 12th, but Amici Market is already encouraging its shoppers to switch to paper bags or B.Y.O.B, bring your own (reusable) bags, that is.
“It’s going to take a little bit for people to adjust to it,” said Amici Market managing partner Maurizio Ciminella.
Ciminella said the market doesn’t plan to order any more plastic bags and once the remaining amount left in the store runs out will make the official switch to paper.
“We’ve been following prior to this ban coming along we’ve already eliminated our straws. We have a juice bar so we do all our juices in plant-based cups,” said Ciminella.
On June 11, the Town of Palm Beach council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance banning all single-use plastic bags. The new measure not only affects grocery stores but gas stations, restaurants and pretty much any store that directly sells you a product or good. However, there are are a couple exceptions including dry cleaners on the island.
“I’m very excited for it. I’m glad that our town is taking the initiative to be on the front edge of it to get ahead of it and I hope to see more of this change in the future,” said resident Rodman Leas.
Leas and his family already use reusable bags when they go grocery shopping. He says the decision is based off of their past experiences living in other cities that already had a plastic ban.
“The trickiest part is actually remembering to bring them into the store, they kind of live in the car for the most part,” said Leas.
Although this new ordinance will cost businesses or consumers extra money, Amici Market said paper bags cost about 25 cents more than plastic ones, the positive impact it will have on the environment far outweighs the financial change.
“I don’t think that it’s going to be a big problem, just going to be an adjustment,” said Ciminella.
