•
•
•
•
•
•
REDUCING BAG USE
Even if you're not mandated to ban plastic bags from your
store, you may want to do so for the environment—or customer
satisfaction. Here are some simple ideas retailers have instituted:
Salt Free
Kosher Certifed
All Natural
No MSG
GlutenFree
High Fiber
• Print inexpensive reusable cloth bags with the store logo,
creating a small revenue stream.
• Create a bag tree where customers can hang reusable bags
NEW!
on hooks for other shoppers to borrow. Also, offer a small
reward to someone who brings in a reusable bag.
• Institute a small charge for bags and donate the proceeds to
a charities selected by shoppers.
More ideas?
Tell us @specialtyfood.com/
onlinehighlights.
grumpy. They wanted the plastic bags so they could use them to
pick up dog poop or line their trash cans. The idea of not getting a
plastic bag was outside their comfort zone."
Andrew Dobbs, program director of the Texas Campaign for
the Environment, estimates that the state government could expect
to save more than $1 million a year in terms of cleanup and disposal.
"This number doesn't even refer to the cost of the bags to retailers,"
he notes. "Plastic bags are devastating to the local recycling processors, getting caught and snagging them. We're down-cycling a lot of
bags, but the cost in energy necessary to collect these products ends
up swamping the benefits."
Dobbs explains how Texas' open spaces are vulnerable to flying plastic bags. In some areas of the state, the fear of plastic bags
drifting like tumbleweeds is about protecting the cattle. A bag can
get tangled in the bovine system, plug up its digestive tract and kill
a $1,000 animal within a week.
While one might think a progressive city like Austin would
have been first in the state to stymie plastic bag use, it's actually the
fourth. Brownsville, near the Mexican border, beat Austin by two
years, instituting a $1 surcharge on plastic bags. "In the beginning,
people were bringing their own bags and we were saving $2,000 to
$3,000 a month by not having to buy our own bags," says Michael
Ybarra, operations manager at H.E.B., a supermarket chain in
Texas and Mexico. "Now, customers are more used to it and are paying the dollar, so we're saving about $1,500 a month." The fee goes to
the city of Brownsville for green initiatives.
Courtney Weaver of San Francisco has an optimistic theory
about the acceptance of bag bans. "In the future, people will say,
'Wow, isn't it weird how we used to use so many plastic bags?'" she
predicts. "We're not at that point yet, but we will be." |SFM|
For information contact
Ray Leard at 800.359.7873 or email
rayleard@purelyamerican.com
purelyamerican.com
®
1020 VINTAGE AVENUE
SAINT HELENA CA
707 967-8500 voice
707 967-8600 fax
www.OlivierNapaValley.com
Orders@OlivierNapaValley.com
OLIVE OIL -TAPENADE-DIPS
MUSTARD-VINEGAR-SAUCES
Julie Besonen is the food editor for Paper magazine
and restaurant columnist for nycgo.com.
MARCH 2013
41
