Build With Bags
April 19, 2010 | News & Press Releases
Source: www.iowagrocers.com
The Build with Bags program is a cooperative effort of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, Keep Iowa Beautiful, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Metro Waste Authority. Over the course of several months, representatives of each of these organizations listened to focus groups convened to discuss shopping bag issues and then met to develop a program aimed at demonstrating how Iowa grocers could help to reduce the environmental impact of shopping bags.
In addition to reducing the environmental footprint of shopping bags, the goal of the group was also to provide an effective alternative to plastic bag bans and the unintended consequences which often result from bans and other related regulatory efforts. The result of these efforts is the Build with Bags program, which is designed to meet the following goals:
- Reduce the consumption of plastic bags
- Increase the use of reusable bags
- Double the number of plastic bags recycled over the next 24 months
- Develop and administer a grant program to aid parks and schools in purchasing products made of recycled plastic bags
The cornerstone of Build with Bags is the grant program aimed at providing funding for schools and parks to purchase equipment made of recycled plastic. This program will be funded by IGIA participants, together with matching funds that will be sought from other sources. The idea is to connect the grant funds to revenues generated from the recycling of plastic shopping bags. The grant program, which will be administered by either the IGIA or Keep Iowa Beautiful, will provide funds to make the purchase of recycled plastic playground equipment, benches, and tables more affordable.
The Build with Bags program provides Iowa grocers the opportunity to affect real change in reducing consumption of plastic bags and in increasing the recycling of those bags that are used. In so doing, the program will not only provide environmental benefits, but also save participants money. The grant program provides communities (schools and parks) an opportunity to share in the benefits of the program by increasing demand for recycled plastic products. This economic driver is often what is missing in other efforts aimed at reducing environmental impacts of products and services. Build with Bags also provides regulators and communities a meaningful alternative to the banning of plastic bags, a practice that has been shown to have a number of negative unintended consequences.
For more information visit the Iowa Grocery Industry Association