A number of Guelph retailers are now offering compostable plastic bags that can be put in the green recycling bin as an option at the checkout counter in favour of traditional non-compostable plastic bags.
Stone Store Natural Foods is one of a handful of Guelph retailers that has made the switch to the compostable plastic bags manufactured in Canada by New Brunswick-based AL-PACK Enterprises.
“We are always excited about finding new ways to reduce waste in general,” said Erin Copeland, manager of Stone Store. ““Right now we don’t offer plastic (shopping) bags at all, we were using only paper bags— but sometimes paper bags are just not suitable or someone prefers to use a plastic bag.”
Stone Store was already a customer of AL-PACK and stock the company’s compostable containers and lids for use with bulk products sold in store.
“When we heard they were coming out with the bags it seemed like a good fit,” said Copeland.
The store has gone all-in on the compostable shopping bags, which cost 20 cents plus tax at the cash register, about 25 cents in total.
The bags may be more expensive than traditional plastic shopping bags used at some other retailers, but Copeland said signing on to the program has sparked some interesting conversations at the cash register.
“The customers who are shocked by us charging 25 cents a bag — this gives us an opportunity for us to explain why we are choosing to do that and to explain about green bin composting. Some of them may not even use their Green Bin to its full advantage,” said Copeland.
“Even if they don’t want to pay a quarter, they will leave either saying they don’t want a bag or they are happy to pay that because they understand why we are charging that in the end,” she added.
Other Guelph retailers who have signed on to using the bags include The Bookshelf, MarketFresh and Flour Barrel, with Goodness Me expected to add the bags in the fall.
In a perfect world, no one would use any plastic bags, said Kathy Rye, retail sales manager for AL-PACK.
“This is not your traditional plastic bag that is going to take hundreds of years to break down — but it is meant to be disposed of in a commercial composting facility,” said Rye. “Every time one of these is used a plastic bag doesn’t end up in the landfill.”
Guelph is one municipality which will accept the AL-PACK bags, which are certified by BNQ as being compostable. Some other municipal Green bin programs, like the one used in Toronto, cannot process them and there is little benefit to them being sent to a traditional landfill.
“They are meant to end up in an industrial composter, like Guelph or Burlington uses,” said Rye.
Retailers like Stone Store are leading the way in Guelph, said Rye.
Something has to be done with the plastic bags and they are willing to lead the way to show their customers that this is a great program,” she said.
The bags can carry 20 to 25 pounds of groceries, based on internal testing, said Rye, and take between 45 to 60 days to compost under ideal conditions.
“When they are disposed of in the proper areas — such as Guelph — the bag actually ends up as compost as the final product,” she said.
Copeland said she did a lot of research to find compostable bags for use in the Stone Store.
“We found a lot of biodegradable bags — which are not compostable bags and cannot go in the compost,” said Copeland.
