REUSABLE GROCERY SACKS: Going bagless

Environmental activist's efforts designed to help shrink landfills

Kurt Nicholson is aiming to make the world bagless with his The Best Bags.Marlene Karas/View Marlene Karas/ViewKurt Nicholson demonstrates how The Best Bag can fold up into a small packet for easy carrying. The bags are sold at Sunflower Market, located at 4020 S. Rainbow Blvd. Advertisement

"Plastic bags are bad," Kurt Nicholson uttered frankly.

It's been the mantra for the past 23 years that's driven the 50-year-old Spring Valley resident to design and market durable, reusable bags in an effort to shrink the mountain of both paper and plastic bags that loom in landfills.

With his multicolored polyester bags in hand and determination in his eye, Nicholson is aiming to make the globe bagless.

Nicholson has had little trouble selling the idea to conserve bags to several communities throughout the world. As of March, his product, called The Best Bag, can be spotted in the hands of people in China, Australia, France, Ireland, Germany, Israel and the United States, toting most everything from groceries to books. Various companies, schools and governments have purchased bags to either resell or give away.

Now, he's turned his attention to what he believes is his toughest sell: Las Vegas.

"I believe it's not chic to be recognized as an environmentally friendly person in this town," said Nicholson, a self-professed environmental activist. "It's not always the cool thing to be. They are here, but I believe they're hidden."

He plans to spread the word of The Best Bag by first approaching several local businesses, from big-name casinos to mom-and-pop shops. Businesses can print their name on the bags and either resell them for a quick profit or hand them out to customers. Nicholson's concept has especially taken off in schools and businesses in Colorado.

The idea of The Best Bag sparked more than 25 years ago while Nicholson worked for First Line Plastics, a Seattle company that, ironically, produces plastic bags. When he got word in 1980 that Seattle's city council had voted to ban stores from using plastic bags, Nicholson stepped in front of the council to pitch an alternative idea.

A ban on plastic bags would only turn people to paper bags, which ultimately produces more for landfills, Nicholson explained.

"The answer, I told them, is recycling the bags," he said.

Nicholson helped negotiate a contract between the city of Seattle and two garbage companies to begin to recycle plastic bags as part of the nation's first curbside recycling pickup.

He then took his venture a step further. Nicholson wanted people to have an option to avoid plastic and paper bags altogether.

"We're one of the ones that create the packaging," said Nicholson, who now works as a product manager at Performance Packaging of Nevada in Spring Valley. "Now, we can offer an alternative."

Nicholson teamed with a backpack manufacturer in Washington to draw up a design for the bags, made of rip-stop polyester.

"You can't affect these bags," he said.

Nicholson manufactured a few hundred and quickly sold out. He didn't think he'd pick the project up again.

"I just wanted to show people that there is an alternative," he said.

About 11/2 years ago, 25 years after he sold what he thought were his last bags, Nicholson heard from a few people who had used the bags for more than two decades. They wanted more bags.

He suggested to his boss, Rob Reinders, owner of Performance Packaging, that the company redesign and patent The Best Bag. Performance Packaging, 6430 Medical Center St., Suite 102, designs packaging for a variety of products, including soap, chocolate, jelly beans and tortilla chips.

"First I thought, OK, will this sell," said Reinders, who started Performance Packaging in 1995. "Then I saw what was out on the market and thought it was a better bag and it'd do better for the consumer. So far, it's catching on."

This time around, Nicholson added cotton to the edges of the handles to protect the carrier's hands. He also added a small pocket inside the bag, so the bag can fold into an easy-to-carry bundle. The new design came off the presses five months ago and is in the process of gaining a patent. The bags are manufactured in China, and logos are printed at Monarch Promotions in Las Vegas.

So, if Nicholson is so adamant about saving the planet, why shouldn't consumers just go grab any old reusable bag?

There are several other options, but Nicholson insists his bag truly is the best bag.

One of the most popular bags for sale at grocery stores for about a buck a pop are made of polypropylene, which tears fairly easily.

"People can only use them five times max until they tear," said Nicholson, who sells his bags for $2.99 each (less for bulk orders).

For now, those in search of ways to save a few plastic or paper bags during their next grocery stop can find The Best Bag at both Las Vegas Sunflower Farmers Markets at 3365 E. Tropicana Ave. and 4020 S. Rainbow Blvd.

Bill Iverson, manager of Sunflower Farmers Market on South Rainbow Boulevard, said shoppers buy about 1,000 of the various brands of reusable bags that hang at the front of the store.

Now, the goal is to get shoppers to bring the bags back to the store to haul home their groceries. "It's going to take a lot for people to change," Nicholson said. "It takes a few who say, 'Let's put something together for change.' I believe we can make a bagless city."