A new replacement for plastic packaging should make PCC’s produce section more sustainable.
“The main feedback we get in produce from our shoppers is “Less plastic. We want to see less plastic,” said produce merchandiser Elliott Lamoureux. “This is going to be a great solution for that.”
The latest advance is a compostable mesh produce bag being piloted at PCC stores through Organically Grown Company, a Portland-based distributor and major PCC supplier.
PCC was already increasing the amount of produce bagged in-house in paper tote bags, Lamoureux said, but those totes aren’t feasible for every product or producer.
The compostable bags replace the plastic mesh previously used for bagged avocadoes, Brussels sprouts, lemons, limes, tangerines, naval oranges, yellow onions, and two types of baby potatoes. Soft to the touch, the bags are made in Austria and woven from beechwood that’s been sourced from FSC-certified forests there. The wood comes from trees thinned for fire management, said Joey Staub, OGC’s product innovation manager. “They are coming from naturally occurring forests, they’re not being grown on tree farms, and it’s just part of the forest management system.”
If the same bags had been in use last year, it would have saved well over 100,000 plastic bags through PCC alone. If the pilot succeeds, PCC also hopes to use the bags in its Farm-to-School bagged apple collaboration with OGC, where proceeds from 3-pound bags of Fuji apples benefit local school programs.
