Tesco shoppers re-use one million bags in three days

Just three days after the company's star-studded advertising hit British television screens, Tesco said on Wednesday that its customers had already used one million fewer bags than usual.

Tesco believes the incentive approach to bag minimisation is working

Tesco is offering loyalty card points as rewards for those shoppers that bring their own re-used bags to take their shopping home (see letsrecycle.com story).

Over one million Clubcard points have been handed out after the celebrity-backed campaign began on Monday (August 14).

Store staff have spotted shoppers using everything from wheeled shopping bags to designer handbags to avoid using carrier bags and claim the free loyalty points.

Customers from London have been awarded the most points so far, closely followed by shoppers in Wales and in the South West. Newcastle and Northern Ireland were identified as the poorest areas for bag re-use on the Tesco scheme.

Points
Checkout staff have been trained to award points at their discretion, with shoppers rewarded points for each re-usable bag they use with the possibility of more than one point being awarded if larger re-usable bags are used. Ordinarily, Clubcard users are awarded one point for every pound spent in-store.

Quarterly Clubcard statements will in future include information on how many of the “green” points the shoppers have been awarded.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, group corporate and legal affairs director for Tesco, said the company had been “bowled over” by the initial reaction to the campaign.

“Easy”
She said: “This scheme is the first time that UK shoppers have been financially rewarded for not using carrier bags. The results so far show that this approach works and that people want to do their bit for the environment, especially if it is made easy for them.”

Tesco expects the number of loyalty points it gives out to treble in the coming weeks as news of its reward scheme spreads.

The apparent success of the Tesco reward scheme followed limited results obtained this time last year by a national scheme aiming to spread awareness of bag re-use without using incentives (see letsrecycle.com story).