Sobeys paves parking lot with plastics

Sobeys Inc. has just opened a new store in Nova Scotia with a parking lot paved using post-consumer plastics (equal to 6 million plastic checkout bags) diverted from local landfills.

The new store in Timberlea, just north of Halifax, reflects Sobeys’ ongoing efforts to reduce plastics, including removing plastic grocery bags from all stores by the end of January.

"My team and I are proud to bring a brand-new Sobeys store to our local community," said store manager Troy Goulden, in a press release. The store includes pharmacy, fresh salads and noodle bar, store-made sushi and other freshly prepared meals.

“We're also showing our customers that we care about our community and encouraging them to join us as partners in doing our part when it comes to the future of our planet by using reusable bags when they shop our store,” said Goulden.

Sobeys and Crombie REIT, developer and property manager for the Sobeys Timberlea site worked with Nova Scotian company Goodwood Plastic Products to develop the new asphalt.

Sobeys is also working with Goodwood to donate park furniture made from recycled plastic to a handful of parks in Atlantic Canada.

The first piece, a large picnic table and bench system that seats 20, has already been placed at the Halifax Waterfront. Other tables and benches will be introduced in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador next year. Sobeys said the Halifax bench was made from 60,000 recycled plastic bags and in total 720,000 plastic bags will be recycled to make the furniture.

Using plastics for paving is a relatively new tactic to reduce the amount of plastics going into landfill and polluting the environment.

Goodwood just paved its own parking lot earlier this year. At the time Goodwood owner and president Don Chassie told the CBC he thought the plastic-infused paving material could make roads more durable because they are more flexible than traditional asphalt.