Beneath the forest-green roof of Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) in downtown Calgary, people carry armloads of outdoor gear towards the store’s checkout tills. When customers pay, cashiers ask whether or not they need a bag for their purchases — and most say no. Each time someone refuses a bag, the company gives five cents to a green cause. “The best bag is no bag,” says store manager Glenda Rowley, who boasts that her store gave almost $9,000 to environmental organizations last year.

MEC isn’t alone in its aversion to plastic bags. A growing number of local retailers are moving away from the bags, which create litter and harm animals’ digestive systems. Instead, these stores offer alternatives like cloth and even biodegradable bags. (MEC, for example, offers a compostable bag for customers who want it.) The University of Calgary bookstore recently announced it’s discontinuing plastic bags and selling $2 cloth bags instead, and even large grocery stores like Safeway and Superstore are selling canvas bags in an effort to cut down on plastic usage.

“Anyone who does the river cleanup knows that plastic bags don’t go away,” says Ald. Brian Pincott. “They just end up in our river, among other places. We really need to get rid of the things.” Plastic bags are made from petroleum products, and while they were once regarded as a lighter, more convenient alternative to paper bags, they’re now considered an environmental scourge. “It’s just a needless use of material,” says Lindsay Luhnau, the education co-ordinator for the Clean Calgary Association. “Your regular plastic bag is going to go to the landfill. It’s just going to sit there, it’s going to be inert, and it might take 1,000 years to break down.”

In 2006, Calgary’s recycling depots collected 166 tonnes of plastic bags. That’s up from 75 tonnes in 2003, the year Calgary introduced plastic bag recycling. “The growth is phenomenal,” says Mike Saley, the city’s recycling manager. “I would expect that number to grow again by the end of 2007.” After plastic bags go into Calgary recycling bins, they’re baled and shipped to a company in B.C.’s lower mainland called Merlin Plastics. Saley says the bags are eventually turned into products like house siding and fence posts.

Some North American cities have banned plastic bags altogether — San Francisco approved a ban in March, and Leaf Rapids, Manitoba, followed suit a month later — and Pincott says that’s something city council “should seriously look at,” although he says he doesn’t know how the public would receive such a ban. Regardless, he says the city should address the plastic bag problem. “We have a role,” he says. “We’ve got to figure that one out…. The proliferation of plastic bags is just plain thoughtless.”

Retailers who’ve moved away from plastic bags have been happy with the results. Safeway says it’s sold almost a half-million 99-cent canvas bags in its western Canadian stores since it started selling them in the spring. “[We’ve had] just a terrific reaction,” says spokesperson Betty Kellsey. “People love them.” Other retailers like Superstore also give disincentives for using plastic bags by charging customers several extra cents for each bag they use. “It works really well…. People use way less bags at Superstore,” says Luhnau. “When something affects someone’s wallet, they’re a little more likely to participate.”

Some alternatives to plastic bags come with their own environmental challenges. For example, MEC’s biodegradable bags are supposed to be composted, but unlike many Canadian cities, Calgary doesn’t have a city composting program. The bags aren’t made to be recycled (they’re “primarily made from cornstarch,” says Rowley), yet when they go into the landfill they break down like organics and create methane. “So is it a better choice to throw out a plastic bag that does nothing, or throw out a bag that’s going to break down and create methane?” says Luhnau.

However, Rowley says many MEC customers compost in their backyards. “They appreciate being able to compost the bags,” she says. “They’re also reusable, so they can reuse them again and again and again before they compost them…. The beauty about these bags is they’re guilt-free. If you take one, it’s still an eco-friendly choice.”