Save Mart http://www.savemart.com/company.php a West Coast grocery chain has really made me angry! In the era of waste less, save more, they have decided to spend money and waste natural resources, including oil!
Save Mart pharmacy has a nice punch card program for loyal customers. For each five punches the customer receives $10.00 toward groceries. Each time a customer earns the $10.00 it is added to their existing gift card. Well not anymore! Save Mart for unexplained reasons, has decided to hand out disposable $10.00 gift cards! Apparently after they are used, in the landfill they go..girrrrr! Here is a mass example of waste!
I asked the store manager for an explanation for this change, he looked right at me and said “we crunched the numbers and it saves us money in the long run”. What??? How?? Who came up with this? I wrote the company headquarters for a better explanation but so far have not heard back from them, I will contact them again.
I also wrote a fellow blogger who has never met or heard of me, but I have heard of her. Beth Terry is an awesome woman who is trying to live plastic free. If you don’t know about the blog FakePlasticFish you owe it to yourself to check it out www.fakeplasticfish.com. Beth is very active in the environmental movement (if you recycle your Brita Water filters you owe her a thanks for pushing for the program). Beth was kind enough to write me back with some advice and help.
Beth sent me a link to an article on recycling gift cards I want to pass on; I have to admit I never really thought about what happens to all those plastic gift cards http://www.plentymag.com/ask/2008/07/recycling_plastic_gift_cards.php.
The article opened my eyes to yet another big source of waste and use of our natural resources. The next time I pick up a gift card, I am going to think about where it will ultimately end up. I am going to ask companies who sell these cards if they participate in a recycling program. If not I may just start handing out cash in place of these waste generators. How about you?
The View From Sari's World 