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hoppers at a Tangerang supermarket experienced plastic bag-free shopping on Tuesday, as the store management only provided paper bags made out of old newspapers.

The management of Farmers Market superstore in Serpong Mall distributed the recycled shopping bags to the customers for free, to reduce the use of plastic bags and reuse old newspapers.

Under the initiative, supported by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia, customers were given paper bags - made out of folded The Jakarta Post newspapers and rattan rope handles - at the cashier.

Customers were also allowed to use cardboard boxes.

WWF membership officer Indah Mawarwati said Farmers Market was the first grocery store to use the old-newspaper bag under the "Renews" program, which was launched on Earth Day, April 22.

"We welcome the grocery store's participation in the program because it highlights they are showing concern about minimizing the use of plastic bags," Indah told the Post.

"We create the bags from old newspapers because newspapers are no longer usable after the day they've been published," she added.

The distribution of "Renews" bags received a warm welcome from customers at Farmers Market, who did not complain about having to use them instead of plastic bags.

During the first 15 minutes, the store managed to distribute around 50 bags.

Ami, one of the customers, said she had no issue with the paper bags.

"I like this bag, it's unique. I never thought of making a paper bag out of an old newspaper," said the Bintaro resident.

She said she was a bit surpris-ed when the cashier asked whether she had brought her own shopping bag.

"I said no, I didn't bring any, so the cashier gave me this paper bag.

Ira, another customer from Gading Serpong, said she was also interested in making bags out of old newspapers.

She visited the paper bag booth and made her own.

She said she usually brought her own reusable bag every time she went shopping.

"I often create bags from used packages at home. The world is getting dirtier, and we should start reducing our use of plastic bags."

Erna Esti Utami, marketing manager of Farmers Market, said the program helped the store reduce their consumption of plastic bags, since supermarkets were considered the biggest contributor of plastic waste, which takes years to degrade naturally.

She said the store usually handed out around 6,000 plastic bags per day to serve 3,000 customers.

"We really need to reduce the use of plastic bags, and we decid-ed this program would be very effective."

Erna added the "Renews" initiative was in line with the store's plastic bag-free program held every second Tuesday of the month as part of their Green Mission.

"On that day, we do not provide our customers with plastic bags and recommend they use cardboard boxes to pack their goods instead. They can also bring their own shopping bags," she said.

She said the store had once provided a free reusable shopping bag made out of fabric, but the program was not successful.

"We made the bags as trendy as possible, so customers were encouraged to use them when shopping here. But we later found out that they did not use the bags again when they returned, and instead used the bags on other occasions. So it was pointless."

Although most customers welcomed the idea of switching from plastic to paper bags, she said the store could not convince all customers.