"How might we foster a behavior shift in shoppers to adopt reusable bag use?"

Single-use plastic bags continue to be a harmful environmental contributor. In New York City alone for example, shoppers use more than 10 billion single-use plastic bags a year, accounting for 1,700 tons of residential garbage a week. A national study found that nearly 50% of these bags become litter ending up in our natural systems, such as water and trees, with plastic bags taking at least 1,000 years to decompose.

ROLE

Research

Community Partnerships

Journey Mapping

Co-creation

Strategy

Prototyping

Co-Design

Testing

DURATION

Six Months

CHALLENGE

Most people know that plastic and single use-bags are harmful for the environment, yet there remains a barrier to getting into the habit of switching to using reusable bags. Some interventions prove to have an impact. Some state and municipalities have implemented single-use bag bans. Grocery stores have created policies to motivate reusable bag use, such as single-use bag fees as well as raffle prize programs for shoppers that bring reusable bags. These solutions are a great start, however there are still great challenges to reusable bag adoption. Reusable bag use is not a conceptual barrier but rather a behavior barrier.

“It’s because of my chaotic life- when I plan, I bring my bag, but it’s the spontaneous purchase I wish I had my bag” - Shopper

LINES OF INQUIRY

FIRST INQUIRY

Inquiry at outset:

How might shoppers get in the habit of using a reusable bag?

SECOND INQUIRY

Deeper line of inquiry: What are the drivers to routinize reusable bags

INSIGHTS

Reusable bag use addoption is driven by rewards

“It’s all about the reward- my grocery store offered a discount for bringing my bag, which got me started and I’ve been brinings my bags since ”

Reusable bag use addoption is driven by reminders

“If I don’t pack my bag right away [when I get home] I have to hang it up where I see it in the morning so I remember to bring it before I leave”

OPPORTUNITY:
Reusable Bag Rewards and Reminders

Partnering with Key Foods, North Brooklyn Neighbors, Future Meets Present and NYC Department of Sanitation, we worked to collaborate on designing and test several reward and reminder prototypes to test reusable bag adoption and use. Based on feedback from over 100 shopper interviews and observations, the aim of the prototypes was to assess the efficacy of the interventions in order to make a single recommendation. Due to COVID-19 several of the prototypes were disrupted pivoting the research, strategy and design to focus on Make Your Own Reusable Bag Hooks.