New Seasons Market


What's the Story With the Plastic Bags?

“Why did you switch from paper to plastic?”
The simple answer is that we use fewer plastic tote liners to pack your groceries than paper bags, so fewer greenhouse gas emissions are generated. We asked a third-party environmental research group to conduct a life cycle analysis of paper bags versus plastic tote liners for our Online Shopping deliveries. It showed that on average using the plastic tote liner replaced 2.75 paper bags and reduced the generation of greenhouse gas emissions by 37.8%. Click here to read the study.

“How can New Seasons Market introduce plastic tote liners when so many other retailers are completely eliminating plastic bags from their stores?”
The publicity around the elimination by some retailers and cities of plastic bags is referring to a ‘thin film’ plastic bag. New Seasons Market has never used and does not intend to use this type of plastic bag. In fact, our Community Relations Manager has been actively involved with Commissioner Sam Adams on a committee to reduce these single-use bags.

Careful thought and research went into the decision to use plastic tote liners for Online Shopping. We looked at many life cycle factors of paper and plastic bags: production, transportation and distribution, anticipated reuse and recyclability of each bag, and disposal. We chose a durable plastic tote liner made with 35% recycled content that fit our totes perfectly in order to reduce the number of bags for each transaction.

“Is New Seasons Market switching to plastic tote liners to save money?”
Absolutely not. In fact, the new plastic tote liners are more expensive than our paper bags. We feel the increase in operating costs to use the plastic tote liners is outweighed by the decrease in our environmental footprint the tote liners provide.

“Why not use biodegradable or compostable bags like in San Francisco?”
Unlike San Francisco, in Portland, curbside composting is not yet available. That means that compostable bags will not make it into a commercial compost facility. Also, all compostable products, including bags, have to be tested and accepted by the municipal compost facility.

“But isn’t it better to use compostable bags since at least, unlike plastic, they will break down in a landfill?”
It is a common misconception that compostable bags or other compostable products break down in a landfill. Landfills do not have the heat or oxygen needed to decompose these products. We are fortunate to have a very successful plastic bag recycling industry. When compostable bags are added to the recycling stream, they contaminate plastic bag recycling.

“Why use bags at all? I prefer for you to pack my groceries directly into Online Shopping totes.”
According to the Oregon Food Code, groceries must be packed into clean, sanitized single-use containers. The safety and freshness of your food is extremely important to us. We can best maintain both by lining the tote we use to deliver your groceries.

“Can you reuse the plastic tote liners from my Online order?”
Oregon Food Code considers food containers, including grocery bags, to be for single service use only; therefore we cannot reuse your bag to deliver groceries. However, you can reuse the bags for personal use or to grocery shop in our stores. They can also be given to your personal shopper to be recycled for you.

“Will you recycle my plastic tote liners, like you’ve been doing with the paper ones?”
Yes. You can give your plastic shopping tote liners to your personal shopper to recycle at the store, or bring them to any store location. We accept all plastic bags at recycling stations in front of each of our New Seasons Market locations.

“Can I request that my Online Shopping groceries be packed in paper bags?”
Now that we have designed a plastic tote liner for use in Online Shopping, we will no longer be packing groceries in paper bags.

“Can I request this type of plastic tote liner when I shop in the store?”
The plastic tote liner is only available for Online Shopping deliveries.

“Will I get a 5 cent credit if I bring my Online Shopping tote liner back to reuse?”
Yes. We apply our five-cent bag credit to every paper, plastic, or cloth bag or container that our customers bring in.

“I thought Portland was trying to get away from plastic bags, like San Francisco. Why don’t you support that?”
The City of Portland and Metro region has made a commitment to reducing the use of plastic bags and we support that effort. The shopping option with the least negative environmental impact is using a cloth or canvas bag because it can be used multiple times over several years. For this reason, we offer a wide variety of affordable reusable bags to our customers for purchase.