Thinking inside the jar

By Mark Squibb   |   Vol. 32 No. 1 (March 20 2019)

General managers at Conception Bay South’s Handy Man Home Hardware hope that little things will make a big impact on environmental awareness.

Zak and Michelle Thorup say that they’re sick of hearing about landfills overflowing with plastic, and that single use plastic bags are a major culprit.

So they’ve taken action in their own way.

Customers might be surprised to see a shelf of empty glass bottles in the nuts and bolts aisle.

They’re for storing your product, in place of the bag.

“I’ve been kind of thinking for the last year and a half trying to figure out different ways to reduce the plastic we put into our environment, and into our ocean,” Zak told The Shoreline.

“It’s an easy place to start,” explained Zak, who notes the weight of each jar is noted and subtracted at the counter so that you don’t pay extra for the weight of the jar.

“There are a lot of people that really do appreciate it.”

The store also has a ‘bag by request’ policy.

“We just assume that nobody wants a bag,” he said.

Zak says the glass jars are a more practical option than bags anyway— they’re less likely to develop rips and tears that your nuts and bolts can spill from.

The policies are supported by vibrant posters around the store, which encourage environmental consciousness.

The Thorups, who recently opened a store in St. John’s and hope to implement their reusable bottle policy there as well, say it’s all a part of making environmental awareness the norm.