Banning Plastic Bags A Step Toward More Eco-Friendly Home Hardwares In Greater Moncton
MONCTON – It’s inventory day at the Home Hardware store on Elmwood Dr. on Wednesday. Operations manager Luc Léger, whose family owns four Home Hardware stores in Greater Moncton as well as a Home Furniture & Lighting store, has one type of product he’s removed from stock: single-use plastic bags.
On January 1, the Elmwood Hardware Group stopped using single-use plastic bags at its cash registers and isles, opting instead for paper bags and reusable fabric bags.
The new policy covers the Home Hardware stores on Elmwood Dr., Mountain Rd., and in Dieppe and Riverview, as well as the Home Furniture & Lighting store that’s connected to the Mountain Rd. location. But it doesn’t apply to the Canada Post within the Elmwood store.
“It has to be done anyways….so to me, if we can do it earlier, great,” Léger said. “Let’s be at the forefront of the movement that has to happen, and then people can see us as a business that’s progressive.”
Léger is referring to laws that will take effect later this year.
Last year, Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe adopted a ban on single-use plastic bags and will require retailers to charge a fee on paper bags, effective July 1, 2020. Members of the Union of the Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB), which represents 60 cities, town and villages, also voted last year to push for a province-wide ban on single-use plastics.
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The impact of the change will be significant, Léger said.
His family’s stores average around 800 customers a day in a traditionally slow time of the year for the business that’s been around for 46 years. That means, at least 292,000 plastic bags a year can be taken out of circulation if each of those customers bring home just one bag each.
“One big thing was just to figure out what the best alternative was,” said marketing coordinator Jon Stephenson, adding that paper bags aren’t the most sustainable alternative.
The company plans to have paper bags out of the stores by the time July 1 rolls around, by which time the store would have to charge for them.
“Paper seems to be the next best phasing-out portion, but we don’t want to keep paper bags throughout the year or even going forward,” he said. “We want to have that just for a limited time so people have a cost-effective option when they don’t have bags.”
He says while reusable bags cost between $1 and $1.50 each, the point of the initiative is not to create demand for them.
“For us, where we’re trying to go with that is to educate our customers that it’s more so about bringing your own bag than it is about purchasing a bag,” he said, noting that customers are encouraged to bring their own bags from home.
Starting next month, customers will also be able to drop off their unwanted reusable bags in a container in front of the stores, so that people who don’t have bags can use them.
“It’s about thinking about the environment and reusing,” he added. “The initiative is about making sure we’re not making more reusable bags now instead of plastic bags. We’ve got all of these reusable bags already made. You’ve got some in your trunk, you’ve got some in your house, you may not be using all of them. Give some to people who might want some and make sure you use the ones you have every time you go shopping.”
For the Elmwood Hardware Group, the initiative was sparked on Earth Day 2019, when its former marketing coordinator suggested removing plastic bags from the stores. Stephenson later carried on the idea and spearheaded the roll-out.
Léger and Stephenson said it’s good for other family-owned businesses and small operations that are preparing for similar moves to start early to get staff and customers on board.
Léger said all staff members need to understand the reason behind the changes, so they don’t feel that it’s an added inconvenience, and so that they can help customers understand as well. The Elmwood Hardware Group currently has 140 people on staff.
Proper execution is key, and the roll-out should include a coordinated marketing campaign to help get people on the bandwagon, they added.
For instance, in January, the Elmwood Hardware Group offered a free reusable bag for every $50-or-more purchase. Stephenson said the company also kept up with social media posts to inform customers about related promotional deals and about the reason behind the changes.
Léger and Stephenson haven’t received negative feedback from customers so far, but they understand that it’s an adjustment.
“It’s just a habit, just a change of habit,” Léger said, adding that many of the younger customers are already using reusable bags and are more conscious of their choices.
Stephenson noted that larger stores like Costco also help shape consumers’ habits when it comes to limiting plastic bag use. So when smaller companies do it, it’s not as much of a “shock to the system” anymore.
Moving forward, the Elmwood Hardware Group has other plans to be more eco-friendly. As part of a new program launched by the Home Hardware head office, the company will buy a refill station that will allow customers to use old jars and containers to buy cleaning products by eco-friendly brand Natura and pay by weight.
The company also plans to look at ways to have products that are more sustainable, “so that people will start having the option and then starting phasing out the ones that aren’t as eco-friendly,” Stephenson added.
Home Hardware is a Canadian company that’s owned by product dealers like Leger’s family. The policies in stores largely depend on the owner of the store.