The majority of our customers bring in their own reusable bags but there are times when they forget or purchase more than they planned. At times like this we have reusable cardboard boxes for people to use and as part of our Plastic-Free July, we are going to launch the much delayed Take a Bag Leave a Bag program.

What is Take a Bag Leave a Bag?

I am sure that many of you will remember the little containers at the check out counters that would say – Need a penny? Take a penny, leave a penny. It was a simple form of paying it forward. Your change was making some stranger’s life a little bit easier.

Take a Bag Leave a Bag will operate much the same way. We encourage people that have an excess of reusable bags to drop them off next time they are at the store. we will put them in our Take a Bag Leave a Bag “bag tree” and when people ‘need’ a bag they can take one. They, in turn, will be encouraged to bring in excess bags.

The History of Take a Bag Leave a Bag

Several years ago, one of our regular customers dropped off over 20 reusable bags. She got tired of all of them in her house. She said that the ten bags she kept was adequate for their household.

Over the years we have probably put close to a thousand reusable bags back out into circulation.  Our store was only a hub for this sharing program to happen. It was an organic program that was initiated by customers and they are the ones that sustain it.

We are making it more formal and be more proactive with gathering bags and working with Boomerang Bags YEG to put more bags into circulation.

The only good reusable bag is one that is used :).

This is part of the sharing community.

We will also be partnering with Boomerang Bag YEG this month as well to redistribute reusable bags.

#Sharing #Reusing #OnceIsNotEnough #OneLessBag #PlasticFreeJuly