http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/07/fred_meyer_sacks_plastic_bags.html
The Fred Meyer's announcement to stop using plastic bags at checkouts in Portland stores by August 1st made the front cover of the Oregonian!
Fred Meyer drops plastic bags at Portland stores
Published: Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 6:32 PM Updated: Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 9:46 AM
Andrew Burton/The OregonianMarcella Davis (right) loads Toni Fisher's groceries into a cart Tuesday at the Fred Meyer store on North Interstate in Portland. The grocery chain will no longer offer plastic check-out bags at its Portland stores starting Aug. 1. "I think it's a very good thing," Fisher said. "I see them all over the city, thrown away on the street."Paper or plastic?
A lot of folks would rather you say, "Neither."
The latest buzz in the plastic bag debate was Fred Meyer's announcement Sunday that, starting Aug. 1, it will eliminate the plastic option at checkout stands in its 10 Portland stores.
The grocer's move came days after
Mayor Sam Adams shared a draft ordinance that would ban plastic bags starting January 2012 in large chain grocers and retailers that feature pharmacies in Portland. The ordinance, which the city council will vote on next month, ultimately aims to steer shoppers toward reusable bags such as cloth -- and not simply to divert them to paper. To do that, it would require that grocers charge 5 cents for paper or compostable bags and offer reusable bags for sale.
While other metro-area grocers have ditched plastic bags -- Whole Foods eliminated them companywide in April 2008 -- Fred Meyer represents the largest chain locally to make such a move. New Seasons Market, which has never offered plastic check-out bags, is looking to offer options beyond paper or reusable bags, such as rentable wagons, at its new Hawthorne store, which should open this fall.
Fact is, although paper bags may be easier to recycle, they're also tough on Mother Nature -- perhaps more so than plastic, say recycling experts.
They're expensive, too.
Melinda Merrill, a Fred Meyer spokeswoman, said that when the chain started testing a no-plastic option last year at its Hawthorne store, most customers switched to paper. That represented a "very, very large increase in costs for us," she said, as paper bags run as much as 4 to 8 cents more per bag than plastic.
Plastic bags are worse than paper when it comes to litter and risks to marine life, said David Allaway, a waste prevention specialist with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, pointing to an environmental impact study done by a group of cities in California that also wanted a plastic-bag ban. But the study found that single-use paper bags were more troublesome due to pollutants emitted and water and energy used during their production, he said.
"We're really pleased that the mayor's proposal and the state legislation being proposed are not a single topic -- plastic bags -- it addresses bag use," Allaway said. "That could achieve a much better environmental benefit."
Fred Meyer eliminated plastic bags at its Hawthorne store last year as the Southeast Portland location underwent an earth-friendly remodel that earned a silver LEED certification.
Merrill wouldn't say how many plastic bags leave Fred Meyer stores in a given year, but did say there's been about a 30 percent jump in the use of reusable bags. In 2009, customers of its 130 stores in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Idaho brought a reusable bag to the check stand 21.1 million times, compared with 16.1 million in 2008.
Customers at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer were torn on the plastic bag decision. Some applauded the effort, Merrill said. Others missed plastic options that didn't rip in the rain, seemed more sanitary and were easier to hang from wheelchairs or walkers.
"We see this as an education need ... about the need to recycle plastic bags rather than use them as garbage liners or dog or cat poop bags, because then they just end up in the landfill," said Merrill, adding that Fred Meyer won't charge 5 cents for paper bags until the law requires it.
Even after Aug. 1, Fred Meyer will offer plastic-bag recycling bins in its Portland stores. That's been a concern of the American Chemistry Council, a trade group consisting of most plastic bag manufacturers, that has worried such bans would mean less recycling.
The city's plan, which the public can comment on through Friday, came as state legislators said they'd reached agreement with grocers on a statewide plastic bag ban that would take affect in January 2012 and apply to all retailers, including department stores.
For recycler Chris Thomas, the move away from plastic represents a little less work.
As the regional procurement manager for SP Recycling of Clackamas, he doesn't blame the bags, but the people who mistakenly drop them into their yellow streetside recycling bins.
When that happens, as much as 30 percent of the labor costs at SP, one of the largest recyclers of statewide municipal waste, is spent yanking plastic bags from the mix or from gummed-up machinery. About half the bags pulled out are the checkout stand variety, he said, the other half are bread or produce bags or the plastic wrapped around consumer goods.
"You can't ban everything that people put in those bins but shouldn't," he said.
--
Laura Gunderson
