SunCorp

Plastic or reusable?

 

Grocery shoppers soon will have that third choice at the checkouts in many Sioux Falls stores.

Sunshine Foods, Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee are beginning to roll out out their new washable, reusable polypropylene bags.

But there's a trick to the new bag: Remembering to bring them back, store managers say. As an incentive, they're offing a nickel per reused bag per visit.

The new bags will be cheaper than previously offered cloth bags at some stores. The new ones will cost between 99 cents to a couple of dollars per bag, managers say.

The push to replace plastic comes down to cost and environmental waste. The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in four trips to the grocery store.

The United States goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually, according to The Wall Street Journal. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.

Locally-owned Sunshine Foods is going with reusable and began designing bags four months ago, said Brian Monahan, manager of the East 10th Street location. He has one prototype in the store, but hundreds are on the way.

The bags are green with a red "Our Family" brand logo and are made with a blend of poly and cotton for strength, he said. A similar bag will be white, with the Sunshine Foods logo on it.

"It won't be available at all stores at first," Monahan said. "But at 99 cents, I think they'll get used. It holds more than our plastic bags: Two big boxes of cereal, several cans and more. And they won't break."

With the nickel rebate each time they're brought back for use, they will pay for themselves in 20 visits.

Hy-Vee canvas

Hy-Vee has been using a $3.99 white canvas bag for years, and offers a nickel per bag reused rebate at the Minnesota Avenue store. New lighter, cheaper bags are on the way.

"The bag we have now holds many more cans and groceries than the plastic bags, groceries that could break the plastic bag," said Ben Conway, a manager at the Hy-Vee on Minnesota Avenue. "A lot of our walk-in traffic, especially shoppers with homes nearby, use these canvas bags."

The corporate offices are finishing a design on the company's "Bring Your Own Bag" polypropylene sack that will be slightly less expensive than canvas, and is washable with cold water, said Chris Friesleben, Hy-Vee corporate spokeswoman. The chain has 224 stores in seven states.

"I don't have an exact date, but they should be done very soon, for around $2-$3," Friesleben said from the company's west Des Moines, Iowa, headquarters. "People can buy the canvas bag, the new bags, or they can bring in any of their own bags for that matter."

Wal-Mart follows suit

Wal-Mart is testing a new reusable grocery bag in the San Francisco area now, and should have a final version of the bag in all stores soon, said Ted Walnofer, manager of the Sioux Falls westside Wal-Mart.

The move is prompted by San Francisco's Board of Supervisors approving groundbreaking legislation in March to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets by next month, and at large chain pharmacies by March 2008.

It's the first such law in any city in the United States and has been drawing global attention.

"After the tests they plan to roll it out for the rest of the nation," Wal-mart's Walnofer said of the reusable bags. "You'll see the entire grocery industry going this way, from Hy-Vee to Krogers."

The challenge to grocery companies is to keep the cost of manufacturing the bag down, so the cost isn't as much for customers, Walnofer said.

A new reusable bag has been well received by customers of the southern United States-based Publix chain, with 908 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Publix' reusable polypropylene "green" bags selling for $1.49, have grown more popular since the launch two months ago, said Maria Brous, company spokeswoman.

Reusing a bag meant for just one use has a big impact, according to the Sierra Club. A sturdy, reusable bag needs only be used 11 times to have a lower environmental impact than using 11 disposable plastic bags.

In New York City alone, one less grocery bag per person per year would reduce waste by 5 million pounds and save $250,000 in disposal costs, the Sierra Club reports.

"We decided to offer a reusable bag based on requests from our shoppers," Sunshine Food's Monahan said.

We at SunCorp manufacture and ship our bags worldwide, want to know more about our range of re-usable bags, please visist http://flickr.com/photos/suncorp