Students in the School of Design course Design and Social Change (51-274), taught this year by Melissa Cicozi and Sarah Johnson, created a series of posters to promote the use of reusable grocery bags in place of the usual grocery store plastic or paper bags. (View the related gallery). View photos from the poster fair.


A sampling of the posters on display March 27 in Carnegie Mellon's University Center

The posters were sponsored in part by the top regional supermarket retailer Giant Eagle, Inc., with store locations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Sixteen student posters overall were selected for store displays, and each Giant Eagle store will display four posters. The retailer plans to have the posters on display in its stores by Earth Day (April 22, 2008), as part of its larger plans to help reduce use of disposable plastic bags and to increase the number of shoppers who bring reusable bags.


Wanshu Wu's poster

“We’re hoping to increase the use of reusable bags in our stores, and the class did a phenomenal job with the posters,” said Derek Gaskins, Director of Marketing for Giant Eagle. “We were very pleased with the results, and look forward to displaying the project and designs in our stores.”


Gee Sun Kim's poster

The retailer sells both regular and thermal reusable tote bags in its stores. “Our reusable bags are designed to be more efficient so they can carry more items than the normal plastic bags, but with wider straps, they can also be easier to carry.”


Students and other campus community members previewed the posters at the March 27 event

U.S. grocery shoppers go through approximately 100 billion plastic bags each year—which consumes an estimated 12 million barrels of oil. Since most are made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which does not decompose, the bags remain in the environment indefinitely. While most grocers offer bag recycling stations, less than 5% of bags are recycled. Bags are frequently reused for household uses such as lunch bags, trash liners, poop-and-scoop bags, etc., but many plastic grocery bags end up in the environment where they can be unsightly or worse—interfere with or kill wildlife.

“The course is so popular with the students,” said Cicozi. “This course was originally created just for Design undergrads. We thought we had a record number last year, but this year we’re up to 59 students: 39 design undergraduates, 1 design graduate, and 19 non-design students from other programs on campus.” Research materials for the course included Fostering Sustainable Behavior by McKenzie-Mohr and Smith and The Tipping Point by Gladwell.


Natalia Olbinski's poster

Cicozi’s students set out not just to encourage shoppers to use reusable shopping bags, but to also examine how they could help change perceptions and habits. “Many shoppers have reusable bags, but they might forget to bring them or feel that it’s just plain inconvenient,” says Gee Sun Kim, a School of Design sophomore majoring in Communication Design. “Rather than just focusing on the message ‘Oh, you should do it just because it’s good for the environment,’ we were looking at ways to make using reusable bags be stylish, fun, and convenient.” Adds Cicozi, “People need more than just a cute picture. We were looking at this project as finding ways to encourage shoppers to actually change their habits, which can be really difficult. They need something that will help them see how changing is more beneficial than staying with the same old habits.”


Posted on Apr 1, 2008