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INTRODUCTION
The It's In The Bag Program is a Plastic Retail Bag Recycling Program formed by the
cooperation of multiple stakeholders. Non-profits, associations and businesses provided
technical and monetary assistance to get the project off the ground. The program provides
an opportunity for plastic retail bag and stretch film recycling for citizens and businesses
in and around the Twin Cities in Minnesota. It ensures that millions of pounds of film plastic
is diverted from the landfill, creates jobs and provides a recycled raw material for
manufacturing. The keys to success are designing the collection containers and signage
to be visually appealing, sturdy and functional, finding a responsible business to manage
the collection, finding a business to sell the material to, getting stores to participate, and
promoting the program. The program surpassed its goal and collected 550,000 pounds of
material in the first year; then went on to achieve 1,000,000 pounds in the first 19 months.
The program now recycles 1,000,000 pounds of plastic bags and stretch film annually.
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BACKGROUND
Minnesota is well known for being at the forefront of environmental issues. A number of
businesses in Minnesota take a voluntary approach towards environmental issues, in
particular, ways that can reduce their waste stream and potentially save money.
Minnesota has many business resources to assist with solid waste and recycling issues.
One of those resources is the non-profit entity Minnesota Waste Wise (MWW), an affiliate
of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Minnesota Waste Wise was founded in 1994
as a partnership between the Chamber and the Minnesota Office of Environmental
Assistance.
The onset of plastic bag recycling in the Twin Cities began in July 2003 when
SUPERVALU, a grocery retailer and supply chain, and MWW joined forces to develop a
voluntary recycling program. MWW invited several businesses, non-profit organizations
and associations to provide both technical and monetary assistance for the plastic bag
recycling program. The program was called "It's in the Bag" and kicked off in October
2003.
The It's in the Bag (IITB) partners are comprised of: MN Waste Wise, Grocers
SUPERVALU, Lunds, Byerly's, and Kowalski's Markets, Hennepin County, Merrick Inc.,
Trex and the American Plastics Council. Financial assistance is also provided by the
Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, Target, Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer
Press, GreenGuardian.com and Minnesota Grocers' Education Foundation.
The partners of the program joined for different reasons. The grocers saw the program
as a way to provide a service to their customers that was easy to use and nearly
maintenance-free for the store employees. The Star Tribune and Pioneer Press voluntarily
participate because they produce nearly 25% of all the plastic bags returned for recycling.
Merrick, a non-profit that provides assisted employment to adults with disabilities, saw it
as an opportunity to provide meaningful employment to their clients. The American
Plastics Council, Hennepin County, Target, GreenGuardian.com, Minnesota Office of
Environmental Assistance and Minnesota Grocers' Education Foundation wanted to
support and foster a voluntary effort to recycle plastic bags in Minnesota.
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RECYCLING PROGRAM
Program Targets
The program targets both residents and businesses; providing collection bins at
participating locations for resident plastic bag recycling, by providing the bins and
collection of full bags for organizations that want to offer this service, as well as allowing
businesses a pick up or drop off opportunity to recycle their commercial film, i.e.
stretch film.
Tasks and Responsibilities
To carry out the IITB Program it is broken out into tasks and responsibilities for three key
partners and the participating stores.
The American Plastics Council (APC) provided funding for the recycling containers and
contacted and helped secure a market for the project (TREX).
Minnesota Waste Wise
- Collects donations and fundraises for the program.
- Manages the finances of the program.
- Recruits new store participants for the bag collection sites.
- Manages the collection program as a whole to ensure it runs smoothly.
- MWW manages the contract with Merrick and the store pick-ups.
- Promotes the program to the media, businesses and environmental groups.
- Trouble-shoots as needed.
Merrick, Inc.
- Manages their clients that perform the physical activities of the collection program.
- Picks up the bags from the stores using large delivery trucks and vans.
- Maintains the collection bins at the stores, replacing broken signs as needed.
- Delivers bags and stretch film to the IITB warehouse located in the Merrick facility.
- Clients sort the bags from any non-recyclable material (contaminants are only
about 3% of all collected materials). Non-recyclable material is disposed of
properly into the trash.
- Bales and sells the baled plastic to Trex to make plastic decking material.
Participating Stores (Cub, Kowalski's, Lunds, Byerly's):
- Offers the use of the collection bins to their customers and pays Minnesota Waste
Wise for the pick up service at $4 - $6 per pick up.
- Removes the full bags of plastic and replaces with a clean, clear bag liner.
Full bags are stored until Merrick trucks collect all bags.
- Stores make yearly commitments to the program.
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Bin Design
A large part of the success of the program relies partly on one very simple tool - the collection bins. In the beginning, several stores wanted to design their own collection bins
that "fit" the look of their stores. However, Minnesota Waste Wise urged them to forgo this
thinking for a unified look and the sake of a successful collection of plastic bags - not trash.
Minnesota Waste Wise worked closely with bin designers to develop a bin system that
would be visually appealing, sturdy and function to collect recyclable bags.The result
was a metal frame with blue and green labels on the top of the receptacle. It is made to
hold a clear liner so people can see that plastic bags, not trash, go in the bin.
Promotion
The program was promoted the following ways.
- Press Releases describing the ITTB program and where residents could recycle
plastic bags.
- Presentations at several large environmental conferences throughout the state.
- Local newspapers and radio spots
- Information on the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce website
- Kick off event
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The front portion of the bin sign
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Initial Implementation
Bins were set up days before the kick off event at over 90 grocery store locations and
two Hennepin County sites throughout the Twin Cities. Merrick had their collection trucks
rented and a new baler was purchased to process the materials.
Months later, another baler was purchased through grants. The second baler allows
baling of stretch film separately from bags, bringing in a slightly higher payment than for
just bags. This also opens the doors for other businesses to participate in recycling
stretch film. Star Tribune, computer distributors, and financial firms use the program to
recycle their film on a regular basis. These participants either drop off the material as a
donation or they can also pay for pick-ups.
Successes
In the first year of the program, the goal was to collect 500,000 pounds of material. That
goal was surpassed, totaling 550,000 pounds by October 2004. On May 20, 2005, only
19 months after the kick off event, IITB celebrated its collection of 1,000,000 pounds of
plastic bags and film and now recycles 1,000,000 pounds annually.
Website to Reference:
http://www.mnchamber.com/about/ww_itsinthebag.cfm
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Trex provides an empty trailer to store baled plastic and once filled,
Merrick contracts Trex for the pick up and delivery of an empty trailer.
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