On July 4th, 2007 Rainbow Foods stopped offering plastic shopping bags. This was in response to the continuing threat posed to marine life by plastic that is still a major concern. The reason we decided to no longer offer plastic grocery bags is because what is happening is that plastic waste, including grocery bags, is breaking down into tiny plankton sized pieces and being consumed by fish, birds, and marine mammals. Scientists studying the impact of plastics in our oceans are finding large areas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in which plastic actually outweighs the plankton in the sea by an astonishing ratio of 6 to 1! Discontinuing the use of plastic shopping bags was one small way to do something about this situation.
We still offer paper shopping bags in a variety of sizes. We encourage you to bring your own bag, and we have reusable green bags, chico bags, canvas bags, and string bags available to purchase. We also have a limited number of canvas bags available for our regular customers to borrow (remember to bring them back).