Wegmans is helping customers make the switch to plastic a little easier.

The Rochester-based store is telling customers to bring in a bag packed tightly packed with plastic bags to trade in on Saturday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and in exchange, they’ll get a free reusable bag.

“I’ve got bags up to my armpits,” said Tom Sonnenberg, customer. “We’re getting rid of the plastic, we’re getting rid of the straws. I guess ecologically it’s a good idea, my garbage man is sorry to hear about it.”

“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much they actually use them, until you have a whole bag full of bags at home,” said customer Cheryl Kuntz.

New York State passed a plastic bag ban that would stop the use of plastic bags in grocery stores by March of next year.

The movement to protect the environment has been taken one step further. Funds from the state’s new paper bag tax will get funneled to support environmental projects.

Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul says this will have far-reaching benefits.

“The single use bags that come out of grocery stores, serve no purpose other than destroying our environment,” Hochul said during a press conference Thursday. “So, we’re very excited about this, and the counties that sign on to this, a share of the five-cent fee on the brown paper bag will go to continue funding this environmental fund for years to come.”