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Plastic Bags: Time for a Confession

April 5th, 2010

Phil Gutis
Director of Communications, New York City
Blog | About
Posted April 5, 2010 in Living Sustainably
As we left the supermarket Friday evening, we saw a family of five lugging their groceries to the parking lot. Each family member was carrying a reusable bag; one young man had an unbagged jug of cider. And there we stood with our cartfull of plastic bags. Redfaced with embarassment and happy that I wasn’t wearing my NRDC vest, I immediately told Tim that we needed to do a better job about remembering the reusable bags.

Its not like we haven’t purchased many of the reusable bags. We even keep some in the car!

There’s just some sort of a mental block. I always always always forget about the reusables until I start to bag. By then it is even too late to run out to the car without inconviencing the others in line.

Maybe I need a bit of a financial push. Perhaps I’d remember the bags if Pennsylvania were to institute a 5 cent tax like DC did earlier this year. According to Treehugger, plastic bag use in DC dropped by 22 million in one month. In its report, The Washington Post says:

In its first assessment of how the new law is working, the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue estimated that food and grocery establishments gave out about 3 million bags in January. Before the bag tax took effect Jan. 1, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer had said that about 22.5 million bags were being issued each month in 2009.

The 3 million bags that were used raised $150,000 for cleanup of the Anacostia River, a significantly lower sum than had been projected but still a nice boost for a very polluted river.

As with everything else, we’re fanatical about recycling the plastic bags (and apparently we’re not alone; recycling of plastic bags has been increasing). But I recognize that it is best not to use at all.

And we will do better!

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City’s plastic bag litter is disappearing

January 21st, 2010

Change attributed to reusable shopping bag trend

Posted By Joelle Tomek/EXAMINER STAFF

Posted 7 days ago
The reduction in retail paper and plastic bags since 2007 can be attributed, in part, to the efforts by retailers to discontinue use of plastic bags and promoting reusable bags instead.

Two years ago, bad waste disposal habits were putting the gross into grocery bags.

But last year’s litter audit shows Edmontonians are cleaning up their act – at least where plastic bags are concerned.

In 2007, Capital City Clean Up’s first litter audit indicated that plastic bags accounted for 1.4 per cent of the city’s wayward waste. But the plastic bag share of Edmonton’s litter was almost three times less in 2009.

“(It’s) very significant,” says Capital City Clean Up manager Don Belanger. “The drop in retail paper and plastic bags in 2009 was substantial.”

He says the litter clean up program is also targeting other plastic litter, such as sandwich bags, garbage bags and plastic wrappers.

“There are in fact two types of plastic bag litter – retail and non retail,” Belanger adds. “With the retail industry taking the lead, we are already seeing a reduction in retail plastic bags.”

Belanger credits a recent consumer trend with much of the shopping bag success.

“The reduction in retail paper and plastic bags since 2007 can be attributed, in part, to the efforts by retailers to discontinue use of plastic bags and promoting reusable bags instead,” he says. “That is why we are pleased to see that the retail industry is taking a leading role in reducing retail paper and plastic bags.”

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DC leads (green) nation in bikes, bags

December 8th, 2009

As world leaders gather in Copenhagen this week for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, I sit in my chilly home office and take the Green DC Pledge. I pledged to, among other things, bring a reusable bag to the grocery store and carry a non-disposable water bottle instead of buying bottled water. When the pledge asked me to fill in another way I’m going green, I wrote, “Put on an extra layer instead of turning on my heat.” (But I draw the line at wearing a hat indoors.)

So other than encouraging residents to take vows of green, what else is the nation’s capitol doing to help save our planet? Yesterday I talked to Alan Heymann, acting chief of staff for the District Department of the Environment.

What’s new and green in Washington?

This year, we introduced the Mayor’s Green DC Agenda. There’s a list of hundreds of action items, like putting green roofs on government buildings, planting more trees and expanding green collar job training.

Where does DC stand on the green spectrum, compared to other cities?

It depends on how you’re measuring it. I think we’re doing pretty well. We had the first bike-sharing program in North America, and we’re second behind New York in terms of people getting to work in some way other than driving. We’re first in the nation per capita in Energy Star buildings. We’re close to the top in actual square footage of green roofs, and we were the first jurisdiction in the country to adopt a Zipcar program for our own government fleet.

Tell me about DC’s new bag law.

Starting January 1, 2010, we’ll be the first city in the nation to have a fee on both paper and plastic bags. Everyone who sells food or alcohol in the District is covered—and that includes department stores that have a chocolate counter or a Best Buy that sells candy by the register. Everything they sell will be in a bag that costs five cents, unless the customer brings a reusable bag. There are some exceptions. If you go to the grocery store and buy peaches, or the hardware store to buy a key, those plastic bags are OK. Our agency is handing out more than 100,000 reusable bags—mostly to low-income residents, at senior wellness centers and at CVS locations between now and the end of December.

So where will the five-cent fees go?

The business will keep one or two cents (two if they offer a rebate to customers who bring their own bags). The rest of the fee will go to the new Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Fund. DDOE will use this money for actually cleaning up the river and educating the public about litter and handing out more reusable bags. The bag fee is estimated to generate $3.6 million in the first year. The estimates will decline over the years, but that’s an outcome we’re thrilled with. The point is to get people to use fewer bags so they don’t end up in the river.

What else will contribute to the fund?

The bag bill will be the biggest contributor. We’ll also do an income tax check-off for 2009 so residents can donate money to the fund. And in 2010, the Department of Motor Vehicles will have a commemorative Anacostia River license plate, so the proceeds from the sale of the plates will go into that fund.

Other than carrying reusable bags, what can residents do?

They can sign the pledge, which includes things like planting a tree in your front yard, bringing your own lunch to work so you don’t have all the to-go containers, and having a meatless meal once a week or more often.


Click here to read about Washington’s Anacostia River and its watershed.

 

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Three Calif. Wal-Mart stores to stop providing free bags

December 4th, 2009
By Mike Verespej | PLASTICS NEWS STAFF
Posted December 3, 2009

WASHINGTON (Dec. 3, 4:50 p.m. ET) — Starting Jan. 1, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will no longer provide single-use plastic bags at three stores in California. The pilot program will test whether consumers accept the concept of stores with no free bags.

Wal-Mart is one of the largest dispensers of disposable plastic bags worldwide, handing out an estimated 27 billion in 2007. The company has set a goal to reduce plastic shopping bag waste in the U.S. by 25 percent by the end of 2013. Its plastic bag reduction goal for its international operations by the end of 2013 is 50 percent, and its overall combined goal is a 33 percent reduction.

All Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. sell polyester reusable bags for $1 and reusable non-woven polypropylene bags for 50 cents.

Since October, the three test stores in Ukiah, Citrus Heights and Folsom, Calif., have also been selling a third alternative — a 15-cent PP bag that Wal-Mart says is both reusable and recyclable. The 15-cent bag is only available at those three stores.

Wal-Mart had initially planned to start the concept of no free bags at the three stores in October, but felt that the Christmas shopping season was the wrong time to start the experiment.

“The goal of the test program is to gauge customer reaction to low-cost reusable bags,” said Amelia Neufeld, media manager in Sacramento, Calif., for Wal-Mart. “This is about our commitment to zero waste. We think this can help us achieve that.”

She did not say how long the pilot program would last.

“We believe that being an efficient and profitable business goes hand-in-hand with being a good steward of the environment,” Neufeld said. “By offering our customers the option to bring groceries and purchases home in reusable bags, we are reducing the amount of plastic we use and the amount of waste that ends up in the home of our customers.”

Keith Christman, senior director of market advocacy for plastics at the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Va. said ACC supports Wal-Mart’s effort to reduce the number of bags it hands out, but that it is too early to assess where the pilot program will lead.

“Nationwide, they are strongly committed to recycling plastic bags,” Christman said. “We completely support that goal and their comprehensive approach to reducing bag waste.”

Neufeld said the company is “hearing positive comments from customers and will continue to seek their input.” But Christman thinks Wal-Mart will limit the no-free-bag approach to communities that impose bag bans or fees.

He noted that there has been “a lot of push-back from consumers online” in newspaper blogs in the cities where the pilot program will take place, adding that he would not be surprised to see the program postponed.

“This is a pilot program and you shouldn’t make any conclusions” about what might occur next, he said. “We expect they will continue to recycle nationwide.”

Wal-Mart estimated that in 2008 it reduced global plastic bag waste by 38.5 million pounds, the equivalent of 2.5 billion bags, since 67 bags weigh roughly one pound. It estimated that since the end of 2006, it has redirected more than 97 million pounds of plastic from landfills.

Neufeld said the company is reducing plastic bag waste by both offering reusable bags and by continuing to offer bag recycling options. In addition, “We are educating our employees on packing merchandise more efficiently. We are creating materials for stores to use to educate customers on how to minimize bag use. We are offering incentives to the cashiers to decrease bag use,” she said.

The blue 50-cent reusable bags have been sold in Wal-Mart stores since November 2008. Wal-Mart said each bag will hold up to 22 pounds in merchandise and has the potential to eliminate the need for up to 50 disposable bags over its estimated one-year lifetime.

Neufeld said the 15-cent bags have the potential to eliminate approximately 75 single-use bags in a year.

Christman said the use of PP in those reusable bags underscores the value of plastics. “Plastics is a great material for both reuse and recycling,” he said.

Neufeld said both types of reusable PP bags can be recycled in Wal-Mart recycling bins.

The Bentonville, Ark., retailer would not disclose details about its sales of either the polyester or PP bags. But it said that since it began selling reusable bags in October 2007, it has sold enough reusable bags to eliminate the need for 1 billion plastic shopping bags.

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Nain plastic bag ban in effect

December 4th, 2009

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 1, 2009 | 8:16 AM ET Comments27Recommend17

CBC News

The community of Nain, in northern Labrador, has followed through on a promise to ban plastic shopping bags, becoming one of the first places in the province to do so.

Stores in the community are now no longer permitted to hand out the bags. People will have to use boxes or cloth bags, or they’ll have to buy paper bags.

Sarah Erickson, the head of the Inuit community government in Nain, said every household in the town received five free reusable bags in November.

She said the ban, which was voted on by the community government in late July to come into effect Monday, should cut down on litter.

“In the spring will be the best time to tell,” she told CBC News, “because when we have our spring cleanup, you know, that’s the majority of the cleanup are the plastic bags. Anyone that’s flown into Nain will see them scattered all through the bush around the airstrip.”

Erickson expects people to support the ban.

The community, with a population of 1,200, was going through more than 100,000 plastic shopping bags each year.

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Store bags become mini billboards

December 4th, 2009
BY SAMANTHA CRITCHELL - The Associated Press

NEW YORK — The scale is smaller, but holiday shopping bags can have a marketing heft that rivals a billboard.

Retailers get as much as they can into - and out of - the totes they give to customers. The bags are stuffed with brand messaging, designed to remind shoppers to visit a particular shop and pique their curiosity about what might be inside.

“Consumers, especially older ones, look forward to the bags. … It’s always been exciting to see what the holiday bag was going to look like. Part of the fun of getting the bag is that it’s a little shinier, a little heavier, a little more special,” says consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow.

Bloomingdale’s positions its holiday bags almost as collector’s items, says company vice president Anne Keating, and they’re often used to decorate stores. She has framed original bags in her office.

The 2009 theme is “Happy Merry Peace and Love;” citron green and magenta are the dominant colors. In 2008, Bloomingdale’s tapped singer Tony Bennett to do the design. (He created a winter street scene of a taxi with Santa in the passenger seat zooming by the flagship store.)

“It’s like sending a holiday card to our guests that come to the store. The shopping bag has been a wonderful way to spread the holiday message,” Keating says. “It’s so attractive that people use them as their gift box and presentation piece.”

Lucky Brand, which didn’t do a unique holiday bag last year, pulled out the big guns this year with a distinctive collage design by Sir Peter Blake, a British pop artist who designed The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album cover. It’s the first offering in what Lucky Brand plans on being an artist-bag series.

“We want you to be in the mall and have people notice these happy bags. It’s a little advertising for us,” says company co-founder Barry Perlman. Store visuals will complement the bag, adds partner Gene Montesano.

Yarrow, co-author of “Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail” and a professor at Golden Gate University, says it’s a worthwhile investment for retailers.

“Sometimes the bags are more expensive than what’s in the bag, but hopefully that person will continue to use it - their lunch goes in, sweater, extra shoes,” she says. “The bag is not just a billboard, it’s an endorsement. If someone you think is cool is carrying the bag, then you think that store is cool.”

Talbots is using its red tartan-plaid holiday bags as an opportunity to transform its marketing message.

Not every store buys into a new bag, though.

Tiffany & Co., for example, has an easily identified bag and wouldn’t dream of changing it, says chief marketing officer Caroline Naggiar.

The key, she says, is its color, a trademarked shade of blue.

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Florida may become first bagless state in nation

October 21st, 2009

By KEVIN SPEAR

The Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. — Paper or plastic?

How about neither?

Florida environmental officials want to make the state the first in the nation to prohibit throwaway plastic and paper bags.

The proposed ban would follow a five-year phase-out during which escalating fees, starting at a nickel a bag, would be imposed whenever such bags were used. Such a statewide fee - which would also be a national first - is already drawing criticism as a type of tax.

The state Department of Environmental Protection thinks the manufacture of paper bags is as much of a pollution problem as the disposal of plastic bags. The thin plastic bags now used by most supermarket chains and other retailers are a source of litter across landscapes and on ocean currents, where they can kill marine animals and birds; they’re also a headache for those who maintain storm drains and landfill machinery.

Still, use of throwaway bags would be a tough habit to break: Floridians churned through more than 5 billion disposable plastic and paper bags in 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available. But state environmental officials aren’t deterred.

“There won’t be any problem finding reusable bags,” said Ron Henricks, the agency’s recycling-program environmental manager in Tallahassee. “What we are hoping is that, as the fee ramps up over the years, people are going to find it as more incentive to use reusable bags.”

The agency’s proposal stems from the Energy, Climate Change and Economic Security Act of 2008, which calls for the DEP to propose regulations governing the use of disposal bags. The law also prohibits Florida cities from imposing their own rules for disposal bags, something store owners say would create chaos.

The DEP’s solution is to follow the lead of San Francisco and a scattering of other communities by banning the bags. Several states have talked about adopting such a measure statewide, but so far none has adopted one.

Now it’s the Florida Legislature’s turn to act, with consideration of the DEP’s proposal coming as early as next year’s spring session. By then, lawmakers will have had an earful from supporters and critics.

“We need to stop using plastic bags for groceries,” said Keep Seminole Beautiful Director Mike Barr.

“We used to have paper bags, and people would worry about chopping down trees. And then we got plastic bags, and now they worry about petroleum products and turtles,” said Rick McAllister, president of the Florida Retail Federation.

The DEP’s proposal, quietly released late Tuesday, targets the disposable bags provided by a wide variety of businesses, from supermarkets to fast-food restaurants, convenience stores to dry cleaners.

Items exempt from the proposed ban would include bags for produce and sub sandwiches - carryout containers, tissue, bubble plastic used to cushion delicate items, and newspaper bags.

McAllister said that, after a quick read of the DEP’s report Wednesday, he considers the recommendation “draconian.” He said stores have made great strides with voluntary efforts to recycle disposal bags and give away or sell reusable bags.

“The real trick here is to get consumers to change their behavior,” he said. “And we are making great progress. It’s almost like this issue has found its remedy already.”

By the fifth and final year of the state’s proposed phase-out, anyone wanting a paper or plastic bag for merchandise would be charged a quarter a bag.

“That’s a heavy tax on Florida citizens - on everybody,” McAllister said.

Publix spokesman Dwaine Stevens said his company is neutral on a paper-and-plastic ban. But customers at the College Park Publix were quick to weigh in Tuesday.

“I don’t think it’s something the government should be involved with,” Michael House said.

“If they did ban them, I wouldn’t have a problem with it,” Veronica Mitchell said.

Pearlena Shepherd’s actions spoke louder than words. She arrived at the supermarket with a large, insulated bag that she already has used at least “20 times” for grocery shopping.

Whole Foods Market stopped giving out plastic bags last year. About 20 percent to 30 percent of customers now bring reusable bags, and the percentage doing so continues to rise, said regional marketing director Russ Benblatt.

“At the very beginning … there were a few people who, once they got their groceries home, would reuse the plastic bags, and those were the ones who weren’t too thrilled,” Benblatt said. “But if that resulted in 2 percent of our customers being unhappy, that’s probably a high estimate.”

Jim Becker, director of Orange County’s landfill, wouldn’t miss plastic bags, a type of trash that seems to grow wings in even the lightest breeze.

He once spotted what he thought were three birds soaring high over the landfill.

“It turned out they were plastic bags caught in a thermal,” he said.

 

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Folsom Walmart to start reusable bag trial

October 20th, 2009
By Jim Downing
jdowning@sacbee.com

Here’s a new crinkle in the fast-changing politics of plastic sacks: Walmart is going to see what happens if shoppers don’t have the option of free bags at the checkout counter.

In a long-term trial starting this Sunday at the company’s store in Folsom – and a few other locations around California – Walmart shoppers can either bring their own bags or buy reusable ones, with prices starting at 15 cents.

In the last few years, local governments from California to Connecticut have enacted various restrictions on plastic bags, and now major retailers are taking their own steps. Target on Monday announced it would give customers a 5-cent discount for every reusable bag they utilize at checkout. Drugstore chain CVS recently said it would give $1 to customers for every four times they check out without taking a bag.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, last year set a goal of cutting plastic bag usage 33 percent by 2013. Now, at selected stores around the world, the company is testing ways to deliver that reduction, from retraining baggers to pack sacks fuller to giving shoppers who bring their own bags access to designated checkout lines.

Experts say that experimental approach is essential, because it’s not clear what strategies deliver a meaningful reduction in plastics usage. Toughest of all is figuring out how to get shoppers to bring their own bags.

“There’s a customer engagement piece that still hasn’t been figured out,” said Michelle Harvey, project manager for corporate partnerships at the Environmental Defense Fund, which is working with Walmart on its environmental programs.

“For myself, I know I need a big flashing sign in the parking lot that says ‘Remember your bags,’ ” Harvey said.

Walmart’s 15-cent reusable bags were already on sale at the checkout counter of the Folsom store Monday. They’re royal blue and made of a lightweight polypropylene fabric that feels like cloth. Harvey said the bags hold up through dozens of washes and can be recycled.

Signs in the store alert customers to the coming change. Heavier-duty reusable bags – black, selling for 50 cents – are also on sale at the checkout counters.

Walmart spokeswoman Amelia Neufeld said the test likely would run through 2011. She wouldn’t say if other stores in the Sacramento region will also be pilots.

Outside in the store parking lot Monday, Valerie Dawson of Folsom was loading a 15-cent bag into her car. She carries reusable bags, but this time had left them in the car.

“Today I paid my 15 cents,” she said. “Hopefully in the future that’ll remind me to bring my own.”

Dawson and several other shoppers Monday said they support Walmart’s policy.

Other shoppers were annoyed.

“You mean San Francisco’s influence has already drifted this far?” said shopper Jerry Kolterman, referring to that city’s 2007 decision to ban plastic bags from supermarkets.

Edith Moore of Folsom said she would miss the free plastic bags at Walmart because she finds uses for them at home. She’d rather not have to buy bags to line her garbage cans, she said.

The policy on trial in Folsom is one of many efforts to rein in the use of plastic bags. Recent proposals in the state Legislature would have charged a 25-cent fee for any checkout bag at supermarkets and large drugstores.

While those bills haven’t passed, the debate has pushed bag makers to propose alternatives.

Last month, bag makers and the nonprofit Keep California Beautiful launched a “Got Your Bags?” promotional campaign designed to encourage recycling and reuse.

The industry is also backing a proposal that would impose a 0.7-cent per bag tax on manufacturers to boost bag recycling and fund litter cleanup. The tax would raise about $100 million a year, according to Stephen Joseph, attorney for Californians for Extended Producer Responsibility, a bag manufacturers group.

“I can’t imagine the state turning down $100 million per year,” Joseph said via e-mail.

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Retailers jump on the bag-wagon

October 19th, 2009

DEIRDRE KELLY

From Monday’s Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 12:00AM EDT Last updated on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 3:12AM EDT

As fashion director of Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Robin Keeler has her pick of anything in the mall.

But these days her accessory du jour is made of water-resistant polypropylene and costs a few cents to make.

It’s also reusable, which means, if you will believe a die-hard fashionista like Keeler, it’s the last word in chic.

“I absolutely loove it,” enthuses Ms. Keeler of the reusable Browns’ shoe bag she keeps in her office next to her desk.

“It’s black and white - my colours - and timelessly elegant. I got it for free when I bought two pairs of shoes last spring, but I used it all summer, going back and forth to Muskoka, to carry all my shoes.”

“Being green is a lifestyle trend at this moment,” Ms. Keeler continues. “And when we carry reusable bags we are saying about ourselves, to the world at large, ‘I’m fashionable because I care, or more to the point, I care and so therefore I am fashionable.’”

The two now go bag-in-hand, as it were - so much so that a number of Canadian retailers have started to jump on the reusable bag bandwagon, aware that the reusable totes are not just carrying groceries these days - especially in Toronto where a ban on the plastic disposables has been in effect since June - but a whole lot more in terms of corporate responsibility and insight into what today’s consumers really want.

“To me it’s an amazing marketing tool,” says Brown’s spokeswoman Annie Cohen. “People are going to reuse them. They’re walking around the streets with them, so it’s good for everybody - good for the environment, good for the customer, good for us.”

For a company like Sears, the reusable bags it has been selling since March, in the lead-up to Earth Day, are also like walking boards, conveying to the customer new and improved information about the corporation as an environmentally conscious, if not altogether forward-thinking, enterprise.

Unlike the blue, thin, handle-less, all-purpose plastic jobbies that have served as the company’s rather tired public face for years, the new reusable bags are sleek and stylish, with shoulder straps to boot.

Made in China of more than 50-per-cent recyclable materials, they depict a fresh image of a bamboo tree against a neutral cream background. The tagline reads: “Being Green, one bag at a time.”

“I think it’s a good bag for the company,” says James Gray-Donald, associate vice-president and sustainability leader with Sears Canada.

“It communicates that Sears has a positive role to play in environmental change. It also says to younger Canadians that Sears has fashionable and eco-friendly options, which may be a surprise to them.”

And a welcome one, it seems. Since March, customers across the country have purchased about 250,000 of the reusable bags, even in locations where there isn’t a plastic bag ban, resulting in a 30- to 50-per-cent reduction in plastic bag use at store level.

Available in three different sizes - small, medium and large - and ranging in price from $0.79 to a $1.99, they cost just $0.10 to make.

All net proceeds from sales go to select Canadian charities, among them the World Wildlife Fund and the National Kids Cancer Ride, providing customers with an added incentive to buy a bag along with their other purchases.

“We wanted to make it easy for our customers to make the right choice and we felt that the bag with this look and feel was one step on this journey,” Mr. Gray-Donald says.

Similarly, Sobeys is using its reusable bags to push the brand in unexpected directions.

A Bag for Life, so-called because Sobeys will replace it free of charge if it falls apart - was introduced in 2006 and retails for $0.99 (Sobeys won’t disclose how much they cost to make).

To date, 8.5 million have been sold nationwide - enough that Sobeys has been able to create its own eco-conscious charity with the proceeds.

The Community Environment Fund, created recently in conjunction with Earth Day Canada, provides financial grants of up to $20,000 to support local environmental initiatives and projects in Ontario.

A similar program exists between Sobeys Quebec with Earth Day’s partner organization, Jour de la Terre.

“The decision to donate partial proceeds from reusable bags stems from our desire to encourage customers to reduce consumption of single-use bags,” says Sobeys spokeswoman Tracy Chisholm.

And customers are not only buying the bag, they’re buying the message: Sobeys reports plastic bag use within its stores is down 72 per cent.

Reusable bags are becoming so popular that retailers who don’t offer them are in risk of going the way of the disposables - that is, becoming socially unacceptable.

Says Mr. Gray-Donald, “Retailers who don’t do this aren’t feeling any negative consequences, yet. But public perception is steadily increasing as to what public companies, especially retailers, are doing vis-a-vis offering environmentally preferable products and improving the efficiency of their operations.”

Or put to put it more simply, if you’re a retailer and you don’t have a brand new bag, take it from Ms. Keeler: You’re so last season.

This is the message she is trying to send to retailers, where out of 240 stores, less than half have jumped to date on the reusable bag-wagon:

“They’ll have to catch up really quickly because reusable bags are the way of the future. They’re sustainable fashion. They’re a trend that, by necessity, will last.”

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Save Mart Stores in Greater Sacramento Giving Away Reusable Bags

October 8th, 2009

Sept 17, 2009

Save Mart stores in the greater Sacramento, Calif., area is supporting the “Got Your Bags?” campaign of the Keep California Beautiful organization by offering shoppers a free reusable grocery bag with a purchase of $20 or more.

“Our company believes that reduce-reuse-recycle practices are part of good business,” said Steve Junqueiro, president and COO of Modesto, Calif.-based Save Mart. “For many years, we have composted organic waste and recycled paper, cardboard and plastics. The reusable bags we now offer are manufactured from recycled material and are recyclable at their end-of-use cycle.”

The Save Mart reusable bags are designed to be stronger, easier to carry and larger than single-use plastic or paper bags. Unlike bags manufactured from synthetic fibers, these reusable bags can be recycled like any single-use bag, according to the grocer. They’re also designed to be economical: each costs only 25 cents, and by the end of its lifespan – between 40 and 100 uses – customers would have been paid back up to $5, since they save five cents each time they reuse this bag at any Save Mart store.

Sacramento-area Save Marts expect to give away up to 15,000 bags during thepromotion, and said that if just half of those bags are reused 50 times, the giveaway would have prevented as many as 1.5 million single-use bags from becoming an environmental hazard.

In addition to offering reusable bags, Save Mart stores enable customers to recycle their single-use plastic bags with clearly marked recycling bins located inside every store entrance.

Save Mart operates more than 240 stores in northern California and northern Nevada under the Save Mart, S-Mart Foods, Lucky and FoodMaxx banners.

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