Superstore stopped charging for plastic bags in December as a way to thank customers, it says. (CBC file)

The Atlantic Superstore grocery chain is reviewing its program aimed at reducing the number of plastic bags that end up in the trash.

The company stopped charging shoppers five cents a bag in December, calling it a customer appreciation move. It extended the special until the end of January.

No one at corporate headquarters was available Wednesday to answer questions about the future of the program. But in an email to CBC News, the company says the fee for plastic bags is being "evaluated."

In Halifax, shopper Shirley Wilson is fine with that.

"You go to Sobeys and they just give you bags," said Wilson. "They don't charge and they said they won't. I don't think it's a good idea. If you want to get rid of plastic … get rid of everything else that's plastic in the store."

Karen Anthony said she switched grocery stores after Superstore introduced the five-cent-a-bag fee. She found it a bother to bring her own bags.

"I know it's important to the environment. I know we should do it and I do have the bags," said Anthony. "But when you forget them, it bothers me to have to pay the five cents."

But Mark Butler of the Ecology Action Centre said customers pay one way or another for the bags.

"They're not free. There’s a cost to the environment and there's also a cost to us in the end because as taxpayers we have to pay for the disposal or even the recycling of these bags," he said.

Butler said he'd like to see retailers take a stronger lead.

"I really hope that the large retailers — Sobeys and Loblaws — would get together and come up with a common policy so they're not competing with each other and they're all charging five cents a bag," he said.

If not, he said, it could be up to someone else to step in.

"Maybe the government is going to have to step in and charge a five cent fee on plastic bags which would then go towards paying down the debt and go towards social services," Butler said.

Loblaw Cos. Ltd., which owns the Superstore chain, rolled out its bag program nationally on April 22, saying that charging for plastic bags drastically cuts usage.

The company said stores that were running pilot programs distributed nearly 55 per cent fewer bags per $1,000 worth of sales, compared with stores that were not charging a fee.