Vance's commissary has going green in the bag

  • Published
  • By Kate Begiebing
  • Vance Services Marketing
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  The long asked question, "paper or plastic?" is quickly being answered with reusable bags. The Vance Commissary sells reusable cloth bags for 70 cents. The green colored bags located by the checkout are becoming incredibly popular with commissary customers. Vance Commissary Store Director, Sheila Gilbert, said the Vance Commissary sold 1,606 bags from Nov.1 through Feb. 5.

"Customers who are buying the bags have told our cashiers they prefer the reusable bags to plastic or paper because of the environmental aspect. I've also heard customers say the bags are great for other uses. One customer said she puts her knitting projects in her bag," Mrs. Gilbert, said.

The bags are made of sturdy mesh and sewn together with polypropylene. They can hold up to 30 pounds of groceries.

"The bags have a square bottom with stiff sides so they stand up straight and won't fall over in the back of a pickup or the backseat of the car," Mrs. Gilbert added.

The cloth bags are also machine washable and can be recycled once they become unusable. 

Vance is not the only commissary going green. The Defense Commissary Agency or DeCA, serving 258 commissaries world wide, sold 350,000 reusable bags in three months.

"Commissaries have long been good stewards of taxpayer funds," said Rick Page, DeCA's acting director, "and with reusable shopping bags, we're applying the same sort of thrifty approach to how we use the earth's natural resources."

Another environmentally friendly alternative commissaries now sell are compact fluorescent light bulbs or CLFs. CLFs use less electricity, last up to 10 times longer and produce 75 percent less heat. The customer on average will save $30 over the life of each bulb.

According to the Department of Energy's Web site, if every American family replaces five bulbs with CLFs, we would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gasses equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.

"We work hard at all our stores to cut energy costs and protect the environment by building energy-efficient stores, watching our energy consumption and recycling plastic, wood and paper products. These are just a few of the things we do as part of our corporate policy. Now were taking it one step further by offering customers an opportunity to 'go green' with us by conserving energy in their homes," said Mr. Page.