NZ's largest fruit and vege co-op gets rid of plastic bags

New Zealand’s largest fruit and vege co-op gets rid of plastic bags

New Zealand’s largest community fruit and vegetable co-op is switching from plastic bags to returnable cloth bags, which is expected to save 114,000 single-use plastic bags every year.

Next Tuesday (October 2) the Wellington Regional Fruit and Vegetable Co-op will start rolling out the change at two of its 10 packing hubs in Cannons Creek and Titahi Bay.

The co-op’s regional co-ordinator from Wesley Community Action, Sallie Calvert, says customers are excited at the prospect of the change.

“This is just a first step towards making the co-op more environmentally sustainable. We will also continue to explore options with the other recyclable materials that come from our produce suppliers”.

The co-op distributes 9 tonnes of produce to 1400 households every week and is run as a partnership between Wesley Community Action, Regional Public Health and the 10 host communities. The co-op began as a community-led pilot at Wesley Community Action’s Cannons Creek site in 2014 to provide access to cheap, fresh produce in an area with no local supermarket.

Regional Public Health is sponsoring four returnable cloth bags for all the co-op’s existing members. Each week members receive one bag of fruit and one of vegetables for a total cost of $12. Under the new system, they will return two bags each time they pick up new produce.

The co-op has spent many months developing and refining the process to enable the continuous use of the returnable bags.

“We know it can be hard for people to change their behaviour but we also want this initiative to succeed,” says Emmeline Haymes of Regional Public Health. “We don’t want a situation where all we’re doing is switching from using lots of plastic bags to using lots of cloth bags.”

She says the environmental benefits of getting rid of plastic bags can only be realised if the returnable bags are used multiple times. “We expect each returnable bag to be used at least 26 times, but we think they will last longer than that.”

A pilot programme at the co-op’s Kāpiti hub has helped the co-op prepare for the rollout. Kāpiti hub co-ordinator Ben Wakefield says it took a few weeks for people to remember to bring back their bags but the return rate is now close to 100%. He says they’ve tried to make the process as easy as possible and introduced a few fun ways of encouraging people to return their bags, such as a “bag amnesty”.

“We told people that that they needed to bring back their bags or give me or the other co-ordinator a chocolate or a coffee. We had about 20 bags returned.”

Mr Wakefield says since the Kapiti hub made the change it’s gained another 10 members.

“People really want to start using fewer plastic bags, and it’s great that everyone in the co-op has been able to work together to make this happen.”

About the Wellington Regional Fruit and Vege Co-op
· New Zealand’s largest community fruit and vegetable co-op

· Distributes 9 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables to 1400 households in the greater Wellington region each week.

· A partnership between Wesley Community Action and Regional Public Health

· Piloted at Wesley Cannons Creek in 2014 as a way of providing cheap, healthy produce in an area with no local supermarket. It was then introduced permanently and began to expand to other areas.

· There are now 10 packing hubs in the greater Wellington region (see this link for where they are all) and plans are underway to extend to Newtown and Featherson

· The produce is bought wholesale from MG Marketing in Grenada North and trucked by a company called ME Transport to the 10 packing hubs. Their support is integral to the success of the co-op.

· Volunteers pack the produce into bags – one bag of fruit and one of vegetables. Each hub has about 10 volunteers and between them the volunteers put in about 250 hours a week.

· People get about 7kg of produce each for $12. The same produce would cost $22 or more in a supermarket.

· The co-op was set up using IP from a similar co-op in Christchurch set up by an Anglican minister called Craig Dixon

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