In an era where recycling is en vogue, grocery stores are encouraging cloth bags and plastic bags are taking over landfills, it's interesting to note Office Max's marketing campaign.

Through the end of this week, Office Max is running a 20 percent off coupon on a brown paper bag that was an insert in the local newspapers.

Bring in the brown paper bag, fill it with Office Max merchandise and receive a 20 percent discount.

The interesting thing is that the bag is then surrendered at the time of checkout and customers' purchases are placed in a separate plastic bag to take home. "It's a one time use bag, you can't take it home," said West Bend Office Max manager Stefanie Kressaty who didn't think the process wasteful.

"Customers can only use the 20 percent bag coupon once," she said. When questioned, why not just put a black slash through the bag to indicate the coupon had been used, Kressaty gave a wide-eyed look and said the "bags are surrendered at the checkout."

Menard's is another franchise that uses the brown paper bag coupon, however customer's purchases are left in the bag and that same bag used to carry the merchandise home.

Asked why not just use a simple paper coupon similar to a grocery store ad, Kressaty said people put their items "in the bag" and that's how the clerks determine how much merchandise is covered by the 20 percent discount.

Many grocery stores are adopting green campaigns, trying to steer clear of loading landfills with plastic bags. Kressaty said they recycle the brown paper coupon bags, by stacking them in a bag and throwing them in the recycling.

Office Max runs its brown paper bag sales twice a year, and Kressaty indicated she was not aware of any pending changes to the process.