The Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association and the Pennsylvania Convenience Store Council this week announced their support for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown’s Resolution concerning voluntary plastic bag recycling program in the City of Philadelphia.

“Councilwoman Reynolds Brown’s Resolution captures the essence of what needs to be done by retail merchants to ensure that Philadelphia is a beautiful place to live,” said David L. McCorkle, PFMA president and CEO. “Merchants need to promote the notion of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and this resolution will help to create that ethic here in Philadelphia.”

Merchants who participate in the program will sell reusable shopping bags, which will reduce the use of plastic bags. They will also train their employees to use the fewest number of plastic bags possible at checkout and finally, retailers in the program will have plastic recycling bins available at each location for customers to return their used plastic bags, thus reducing Philadelphia’s litter problem.

Penn Jersey Paper, a packaging and paper distributor in northeast Philadelphia, has been actively working with retailers to develop this recycling program. Rocco D’Antonio of Penn Jersey Paper said, “We are already collecting tons of used plastic bags at our retail locations and sending them to Goodwill Industries where they are prepared for shipping to a Virginia-based company which turns the used plastic bags into new products such as planks for outdoor decks.”

Judy Spires, President of ACME Markets said, “ACME has been involved in recycling for a long time. Last year alone, we recycled 1.5 million pounds of plastic. That equals about 58 million recycled plastic bags. So, we are pleased that this idea is spreading to all segments of the retail community. Working together we can reduce litter and make Philadelphia an environmentally friendly place to live and work.”

Councilwoman Reynolds Brown’s Resolution also contains a provision for consumer education, which will be initiated through Keep Philadelphia Beautiful.

“We will continue working with school children throughout the city to teach them about the importance of recycling and to create a new community norm where children understand the principles of good environmental stewardship that promotes recycling and using reusable bags at retail locations,” said Phoebe Coles, executive director, Keep Philadelphia Beautiful.

The final provision of the resolution concerns keeping score, so retailers will be asked to track the amount of plastic that is recycled so that the city can measure its progress towards becoming the greenest city in America.