March 2, 2016

ABC Campaign Has Been a Success For “B” and “C” but Not “A” (Ask First)

To the Editor:

The ABC’s Campaign (Ask First, BYOBag, and Collect) has been a huge success in two of its three goals — the B and C. In the program’s first six months, this town has collected approximately 1,000 pounds of plastics that would have been sent to our landfill. These are the plastics that are not typically recycled such as bread bags, cereal bags, and the back of the house plastics that cover palettes for local businesses.

McCaffrey’s is doing an excellent job keeping track of weight and size of all the plastic collected so we can report how many pounds we have kept from the landfill — which is our goal.

What’s missing from the ABC’s campaign is the A. I just popped into McCaffreys this morning and was not asked if I needed a bag. Instead, the cashier pulled a plastic bag out readying it for my purchase. For the woman before me, the cashier actually wrapped two small candy bars in a huge plastic bag!

This campaign is all about changing habits. And, with a little effort, it could become a model for other towns. McCaffrey’s just needs to get the A figured out and hand out fewer plastic bags to its customers by Asking First. Pardon the dopey pun, but it’s as easy as ABC.

Diane M. Landis 

Executive Director, Sustainable Princeton