San Jose's Strict Plastic Bag Ban Seen As Business Opportunity
SAN JOSE (KCBS) – On January 1st, one of the toughest plastic bag bans in the country went into effect in San Jose. While some shoppers are complaining about the new rules, others see a business opportunity.
Single-use plastic bags are now illegal in San Jose, except at restaurants and nonprofits.
"I saw it as an opportunity to use it as a creative way of doing what they call guerilla marketing," said Mike Aguilera, a businessman who is now selling ad space on reusable bags to local businesses. The establishments pass the bags out to customers for free.
"It's a good size bag," said Aguilera. "It's about 16 inches wide and 15 inches long, so it has a good imprint size on there."
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
Grocery chains are also promoting reusable bags.
"We have a nice array of reusable bags in our store at all price points," said Alicia Rockwell, a spokesperson for Lucky Supermarkets.
The bags at Lucky vary from 10 cents for a paper bag, to $2 for a reusable bag.
The plastic bag ban applies to all of the city's more than 5,000 retailers.
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