Annie Mechino pauses; from a corner of her eye she’s spotted a customer standing by the orange-filled stand. He’s empty handed.

“Billy will have it tomorrow,” she says referring to her brother, the butcher.

The man smiles and wishes her happy New Year.

“I’ll need to write that down,” she says of the customer’s silent steak order.

It’s like that at Sandy Lane Meat Market. Employees know customers by name and it’s not unusual for them to know what they like, especially when it comes to dishes like lasagna prepared by Ruth Almeida.

Annie returns to the topic of the plastic bag ban that went into effect Monday.

What will the ban mean to mom and pop stores?

Paper bags have been a part of Sandy Lane ever since Annie and Bill’s father, George, bought the meat market from the late Ward 4 Councilman Walter Santos 44 years ago. After acquiring the meat market, George bought the adjoining store, Aimee’s fruit stand and combined them into a grocery store.

Annie doesn’t recall the date, but believes it was the 1980s when single-use plastic bags were introduced. Plastic bags are strong and have a handle. But the market never did away with paper, offering a paper bag with handles.

Sandy Lane never charged extra for the paper bag, which Aimee said cost 20 cents as opposed to the plastic bags that cost her 4 cents each. She hopes customers will use her paper bags more than once or start using their own reusable bags. She has the reusable linen bags for sale at $3.99 and $5.99 for an insulated bag at the checkout.

She marvels at the multiple uses of the plastic bag that can be wadded up in a pocket and pulled out to shelter your head from rain or scoop up your dog’s poop.

“And now I’m going to have to buy plastic bags to line my trash can,” interjects a customer who has been listening to the exchange. The customer questions how the law reduces the production of plastic bags. Annie adds that producing more paper bags will result in cutting down more trees.

The customer points to an irony: fewer plastic bags will get caught in trees, but then there’ll be fewer trees for the bags to get caught in.

How does it all add up to helping the environment, Annie questions?

The Department of Environment Management website offers an answer.

“Plastic bags are difficult and costly to recycle and most end up on landfill sites where they take around 300 years to photodegrade. They break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and waterways and enter the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them,” reads the website.

Annie hasn’t calculated what the ban on plastic bags might mean in additional costs, but has an appeal to her customers: “Please reuse your paper bag.”