Which reusable grocery bags passed, and failed, Marketplace's durability test?

They're taking o'er your cupboards, the backseat of your gondola and your kitchen: Reusable foodstuff bags.

With pliant bagful bans at all levels of government across Canada, shoppers are faced with a plethora of choices at the grocery store. Is it better to grab the flimsy cloth T-shirt-style bags, or shell out for a heftier tote? Marketplace set up a test to find out.

The Canadian government counts bags containing plastic as reusable if they can withstand 100 trips of 53 metres each while carrying 10 kilograms, without breaking or tearing.

Although this regulation is on hold while the plastics industry challenges it in court, Marketplace wanted to find out which bags sold at Canadian stores met that benchmark. We purchased bags from Sobeys, Real Canadian Superstore, Dollarama, Walmart and Metro, and tested a single-use plastic bag for comparison.

On a running track in Whitby, Ont., student athletes were each assigned a bag, and a selection of commonly purchased groceries weighing 10 kilograms. To simulate a typical trip to the grocery store, students would unpack and repack the bags with groceries every 53 metres.

Seven out of 12 bags failed the test, including the single-use plastic bag.

All of the thinner cloth reusable bags failed before 100 trips. One of them, from Sobeys, only made it five trips before tearing.

A large, double-handle bag from Walmart and a water-resistant bag from Sobeys also tore before 100 trips.

The sturdier a bag appeared to be, the better it performed. A cotton tote bag from Dollarama lasted all 100 trips with no signs of damage. Thicker plastic bags, in most cases, lasted longer. 

Marketplace reached out to all stores where the bags were purchased. 

Walmart and Dollarama said their reusable bags were independently tested and meet government standards. Metro said its T-shirt style bags are meant to carry seven to nine kilograms each, and say it offers stronger alternatives for heavier grocery hauls. Sobeys and Loblaw did not respond. 

The results concern Karen Wirsig from Environmental Defence, an advocacy group. 

"I think what [companies] really tried to do is find things that might fit under some legal definition … and continue then to pump plastic or plastic-like products into the market that end up as waste and litter."

Marketplace asked Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin for an on-camera interview about reusable bags that failed to meet federal standards. Her office refused, and sent a statement saying they are waiting to take action until the legal battle over proposed rules is settled in court.  

So should you throw out your current arsenal of cheaper reusable bags for something sturdier? Not quite, experts say.

Calvin Lakhan, who heads one of the largest waste research initiatives in Canada, says the best bag to use is one that you already own. "'Reduce, reuse, recycle' is not just a catchy phrase, it's the order in which we're supposed to do things."

Reusable bags, to be truly environmentally friendly, must offset the carbon footprint needed to manufacture and ship them. Single-use plastic bags, while a substantial source of litter, have a surprisingly  small carbon footprint due to their manufacturing process, light weight and inert material not releasing methane into the environment.

In comparison, the amount of water and energy needed to manufacture a cotton bag is much higher. A 2018 study by the Ministry of Environment and Food in Denmark suggests that an organic cotton tote needs to be used 20,000 times to offset its overall environmental impact of production. 

Paper bags aren't ideal, either, says Lakhan. They're less durable than a single-use plastic bag, and when they break down in the environment, they release carbon and methane into the atmosphere. 

"So unless we have the ability to capture that carbon, it's just actually extra emissions," he said.

If you forget your bag, you're not alone or fully at fault, says Wirsig. "They're actually charging us for cheaper bags that are basically garbage," she said, "We're back to the same problem of this multiplication of [cheap] bags that people are using."  

Wirsig is calling on the industry to implement a more circular way of allowing shoppers to carry their goods. That includes reusing shipping boxes from grocers, like what Costco offers, for example, or creating a free reusable bag program, where shoppers can bring in their old reusable bags and borrow others.

Wirsig suggests that once the bag has reached the end of its life, you can give it one final purpose by using it as a trash bin liner, provided your local municipality doesn't recycle them.

"Certainly don't pay extra for stuff," she said. "That's making some kind of promise to make us all feel better."

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