While gathering groceries the other day at Safeway I stumbled upon a new line of Ziploc Sandwich Bags designed to be a little greener. These bags tout several environmental benefits but cost more than traditional Ziplocs. While I like the idea of recreating and improving one of the most wasteful and environmentally harmful products out there (plastic sacks) the “improved” Ziplocs felt a little like greenwashing to me.
Ziploc Evolve bags advertise 25% less plastic which means they aren’t as wasteful as traditional bags. That said, I’ve noticed that most competing white label sandwich bags are also thinner. It’s simply a cost saving measure for the no-name bags. Despite the higher price I bought the Evolve product and have been using the bags for over a week now. I’m happy to report that this greener line of thin Ziploc bags perform just as you might expect, no leaks, no faulty zippers etc… But should you really have to pay more for a product that feels inferior and might actually cost less to produce just because it’s green?
Using these bags has been a fine experience but next time I visit the store I’ll be eying the competition more carefully. Whether they advertise themselves as green or not, less plastic = better in the eyes of mother nature. This story isn’t quite over though as Ziploc Evolve bags advertise a few extra benefits that might justify the higher price.
- Cardboard carton containing Ziploc Evolve bags is made with 100% recycled paperboard with a minimum of 35% post consumer content. This means the box that contains the bags helps to preserve more trees and encourage recycling.
- The manufacturing process of these bags requires less energy than traditional bags (this may be due to their thinner size which requires less heat for molding the plastic?) I’m not completely sold here… green washing alert.
- Bags are manufactured using renewable wind energy which is a clean energy source. This is really the clincher for me, if these bags are made using wind power (which could be more expensive depending on where they are produced and what the utilities offer) then a higher price is justified and I would willingly pay a bit more.
Sometimes it’s hard to sort through the clutter and really put your approval behind a product. In so many cases there is little or no motivation to make a product more sustainable or less environmentally harmful when the bottom line is in question. Businesses have to be profitable to be sustainable themselves and I get that.
Maybe the higher price of the new Ziploc Evolve bags is based on the wind power component or maybe this is a trial run which costs more to do (lower volume = higher price to start). Whatever the case, I’m glad to see new products that take the environment into consideration and I hope to see these bags priced on par with a normal pack of 50 Ziploc sandwich bags in the near future.
[update, on July 6th 2010 I followed up on the pricing of Ziploc Evolve bags at my local Safeway which had been updated to $2.99 on par with a 50 pack of regular Ziploc sandwich bags.]
