Plastic waste gets the sack

Stores recycle grocery bags to save energy, environment

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican

11/10/2008 - 10/16/08

So you've finished the week's grocery shopping and are starting through the check-out line when you remember, once again, that you forgot your cloth bags.

Guiltily, you accept the plastic bags the clerk loads up, looking around to see if any of your more environmentally-trained friends are nearby, gloating.

But wait — you can ease up on the guilt trip.

Some grocery and department stores recycle plastic bags.

Into what, you ask? Trex fence railings and decking available at Home Depot or Lowe's, for one. And the comfy bench next to the cloth grocery bags at the Albertsons on Zia Road? Made of recycled plastic bags.

Albertsons has recycled plastic grocery bags for more than a decade. "Since before it became in vogue," said Chris Wilcox, southwest marketing director for Albertsons Markets.

Wilcox said from March through September the 116 Albertsons stores and two distribution centers in the Southwest have recycled 564,000 pounds of plastic bags. Last year they recycled more than a million pounds.

John Perea, manager of the Albertsons on Zia, said the store's blue recycling bin (made of recycled plastic) fills up and is emptied about twice a week. The collected bags are eventually shipped off to Trex, a company that mixes the plastic with recycled wood to create the building materials.

Perea said during the holidays people sometimes take the bags from the recycling bin to pack food for needy families. Perea figures this is just another way of reusing the bags.

Albertsons also now sells reusable cloth bags, and Perea said he orders fewer plastic bags now as people make the switch. He said the store is saving about $2,000 a year in plastic-bag costs and about breaking even on the cloth bags.

WalMart also recycles plastic bags and ships them off to Trex. Last year, the company collected 15.5 million tons of plastic bags at their stores.

Some stores, like Whole Foods, are doing away with plastic bags altogether, but offer to recycle old ones for customers.

One Santa Fe grocery store, La Montanita Cooperative, even offers a place to leave paper bags for other people to use.

But back to those plastic bags.

Trex, founded in 1996, manufactures wood-alternative fencing, decking and railing materials in Fernley, Nev., and Winchester, Va. The company recycles about 1.3 billion plastic grocery and retail bags, and buys 300 million pounds of used polyethylene and millions of pounds of hardwood dust to create the products. Trex claims it cuts down no trees, but uses wood fibers from pallets, sawdust and woodworking operations.

Energy equal to 11 barrels of oil is saved for every one ton of plastic bags reused or recycled, according to Earth 911, a public-private organization.

Plastic bags don't break down and biodegrade when tossed out in the trash. Left along water ways, the plastic bags harm aquatic species and other wildlife.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.