For people who would like to make a trip to the grocery store and not come home with a bag full of bags, two Minot grocery chains are trying to help out.

Cash Wise Foods and Marketplace Foods are partnering with Environmentally Minded People of Minot and the Friends of the Souris River to bring the first Bring Your Own Bag Week to Minot.

The goal is to raise awareness about the use and dependence on single-use plastic bags. The flimsy bags have been scrutinized for years because they are seen as wasteful and a source of pollution. Lately the city council has even discussed a special tax on the perceived culprits.

The Bring Your Own Bag event will run from Monday, April 22, to Sunday, April 28, at the following locations: Marketplace Foods at 20th Avenue Southwest and Broadway, Marketplace Foods at 21st Avenue and 16th Street Northwest and Cash Wise Foods at Southgate Crossing.

Each store will be providing free reusable shopping bags to customers who want one. The bag can be used for a 5-cent credit (discount) in regular check out lanes, and that credit will be given every time the bag is reused in the store. The stores have long sold reusable cardboard boxes and offered discounts for each use; having the reusable bag option is a pleasant and positive convenience customers will likely appreciate.

Kudos to these large chains for paying attention to what Minot shoppers want and taking a lead role in the cause to reduce waste that goes into out landfill.

Volunteers will be located near the check out lanes to help distribute one bag per person while quantities last. They, too, are to be congratulated for taking part.

“This is a win-win event for our community,” said Donna Bye, event co-coordinator.

We could not agree more. Let’s see if the idea catches on as we hope it will.