With Fort Frances to put in a ban on shopping plastic bags in 2021, the parent company of Safeway is already ahead of the game.
Sobeys stores across the country will stop offering plastic grocery bags tomorrow.
Spokesperson Violet MacLeod says there will be other options customers can use.
“Hopefully they’ll remember their reusable bags. If not we will be selling our reusable bags as always, and we’ll also have some paper options for 10 cents a bag,” says MacLeod.
MacLeod says despite concerns, the new paper bags are quite durable.
“They’re fairly stiff, they do stand up on their own. They are fully recyclable, they are compostable, they come from forests that are sustainably managed, so limiting the impact of that bag as much as possible, and also we are going to be donating a portion of those proceeds to plant trees across Canada.”
MacLeod adds the decision to ban plastic bags was driven by customers, who wanted more sustainable shopping options,
“That change is going to take 225 million plastic grocery bags out of circulation annually, and a cool fact is that that’s actually enough to wrap around the Earth two times, so a big change and not insignificant.”
The federal government announced it would be pursuing a ban on single-use plastics last June, but MacLeod says Sobeys was already ahead of the curve.
“That was just good luck on our part that the federal government happened to make that announcement because we were already tracking in this way, and that’s because our customers have been asking for it.”
For now, the ban will only be at Sobeys-named stores. The company will also start looking at ways to make the change in other stores under the Sobeys banner like Safeway and IGA.
“We’re taking our time to roll it out so that all our customers know,” says McLeod.
