Last week Target, the fifth-largest U.S. retailer in 2008 and CVS announced plans designed to reduce the number of single use plastic bags their customers carry out of their 7,000 stores every year.

Target  plans to give customers a 5-cent discount for every reusable bag they use to pack their purchases at all 1,700 Target stores nationwide.

CVS’ plan is to give customers  who choose to participate cash bonuses for not using plastic bags is more cumbersome.

Customers must ante up 99 cents to purchase a green tag that will be affixed to their own reusable bags when they shop.

When used in conjunction with their CVS cards (four times) customers will receive an additional $1 cash bonus they buy something but don’t request plastic bags.

Green activists,  working to reduce and eliminate single use plastic bags were naturally buoyed by the announcement.

While this is a small step forward, it is none the less, it is worth noting that Target Australia completely banned the use of single use plastic bags in last year in 2008! Here. Green activists are watching to see how soon other retailers follow suit.

In an article  USA TODAY noted

[...] the two programs could keep billions of plastic bags out of the environment and nudge other big retailers to take similar steps, says Allen Herskowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

According to Allen Herskowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, both programs could keep billions of plastic bags out of the environment. “Plastic bags are the most ubiquitous form of waste on the planet,” Herskowitz says. “They are among the most deadly forms of marine debris, lethal to threatened species of marine mammals throughout the world.”