Mariano’s in Naperville to phase out single-use plastic bags; task force told to propose ideas for other stores
Mariano’s in Naperville will soon stop doling out single-use plastic bags, a company representative said.
The grocer’s Naperville location at 1300 South Naper Blvd. is piloting the change as part of a larger initiative by parent company Kroger, replacing single-use plastic bags with multiple sustainable options that are better for the planet while meeting the needs of customers, spokeswoman Amanda Puck said.
Mariano’s in Naperville will be Kroger’s first Illinois store to pilot the policy, Puck said. Kroger currently operates 44 Mariano’s in Chicago and its suburbs, including the one in Naperville.
“We’re excited as a store, as a team and as an organization,” Puck said, adding that Kroger is “very serious” about eliminating single-use plastic bags and that she hopes Naperville’s pilot helps the company take a closer step towards that goal.
Formal announcement of the pilot, as well as the program’s launch, will likely come in November, Puck said. In the meantime, she said, more details for the Naperville test-run are being worked out internally.
Kroger is one of the largest grocery store chains in the country, with nearly 2,800 stores — under two-dozen different banners — spanning 35 states. The company announced it would be progressively discontinuing single-use plastic bags and transitioning to reusable bags in 2018. The venture aligns with an overarching commitment by Kroger to end hunger and waste in the communities it serves.
Over the last 20 years, the global annual production of plastic products – and in turn, plastic waste — has more than doubled, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2018, American shoppers alone sent more than three million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps to the landfill, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found.
Seattle-based QFC was Kroger’s first retail division to roll out its no single-use initiative in 2019. Last fall, the company’s mid-Atlantic division, which includes Virginia and West Virginia, followed. Past pilot programs encouraged customers to bring their own bags, purchase a reusable plastic bag — designed for repeated use and in part made out of recycled material — for 10 cents or buy a 99-cent tote bag.
Plans for a Naperville pilot surfaced at the Naperville City Council’s regular meeting Tuesday night as suggestions for a comprehensive, citywide plastic bag ban came up during public comment.
Though only broached informally, the concept was brought forward by local environmental advocate Anu Verma. She spoke to council members as a representative of the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force (NEST), a community organization that has been an official Naperville advisory body since 2019.
She argued that Naperville is ready to “rethink the status quo of (plastic) bags in the retail system.” The reason why? To some extent, she alluded, Mariano’s.
“I think this is the perfect opportunity for us to grab,” Verma said Tuesday.
While Mariano’s hasn’t officially publicized its Naperville program, NEST was made aware of plans behind closed doors.
A couple months ago, just as Mariano’s started fleshing out the local pilot, the grocer reached out to Naperville to notify the city of what it had in the works, according to Naperville Sustainability Coordinator Ben Mjolsness.
“We’re not a partner with them on it but Naperville is where it’s happening … so it makes sense to be made aware,” Mjolsness said.
Still, it was Mjolsness that connected Mariano’s with NEST, in case the grocer was looking for support from someone that already had an edge in waste management locally, he said. (NEST has a committee dedicated to reducing waste in Naperville.)
Puck, on behalf of Mariano’s, said Friday that she couldn’t give any feedback as to what has or might come of the city connecting her team with NEST.
As for NEST, the group has broader research on the subject to do.
In response to Verma’s council comment Tuesday, members expressed interest in exploring the city’s approach to single-use plastics further, though to varying degrees. Council members Josh McBroom, Jennifer Bruzan Taylor, and Ian Holzhauer all said they’d be more open to encouraging retailers away from single-use plastics rather than deterring their use something like a bag tax, which have been popping up more and more in Chicagoland communities.
Last year, Batavia approved a 10-cent fee on retail single-use shopping bags at stores with a gross floor area of 5,000 square feet or more, a cost typically passed along to customers who don’t provide their own bags. The fee went into effect in July. Evanston OK’d a similar fee earlier this year, as did Northbrook.
Still, Naperville officials this week weren’t sure that would be the right path for their constituents.
“I don’t think that I would be comfortable going for an automatic ban of plastic bags,” Bruzan Taylor said.
Instead, members offered several alternatives, including discount incentives for bringing in reusable bags. Ultimately, the council — tempted but not yet clear on where it wanted to go with ideas — kicked the matter back to NEST.
City Manager Doug Krieger advised the group to do more fact-finding and then write up a formal proposal for the city to consider at a later date.
In an interview after Tuesday’s meeting, Verma said NEST will “come up with a few strategies and action plans in the near future.”
“Time will tell what the progress will be,” she said.
