Community Natural Foods has been supporting the BYOC movement since 1977… it’s actually how we started the business! But now we want to scream it from the rooftops! So here’s how you can do your part in reducing waste by bringing your own container. For every container you bring to fill with bulk items, you will receive a 2 cent credit that you can choose to donate to our monthly local charity. Community Natural Foods matches Change for the Earth token donations each month.

HOW TO SHOP BULK

  1. Bring your own clean container or reusable bag (see below what is/isn’t accepted).
  2. Forgot your container? You can buy a 750mL glass jar from Community Natural Foods or use a paper bag (which are compostable in the City of Calgary green bin).
  3. Tare your container at an available till. One of our cashiers will write the weight on the container so that it can be deducted from the final weight after it’s been filled.
  4. Fill your container or reusable bag with any of the great bulk items we have to offer.
  5. Don’t forget to take note of the BIN # (memorize it, write it on your container, take a picture of it… whatever you want to do).
  6. Pay at the till and enjoy your bulk items!


WHAT IS/ISN’T ACCEPTABLE AS A BYOC CONTAINERS

ACCEPTABLE CONTAINERS

NOT ACCEPTABLE CONTAINERS
  • Any sort of reusable container or bag that is food grade (glass, pyrex, plastic,
    homemade fabric bags) as long as it is clean with a lid and no holes or cracks in any part of the container
  • Glass containers sold by Community Natural Foods
  • Reused Plastic bag, paper bag, repack container (as long as it’s clean)
  • Dirty container/bag
  • Container/bag with a hole or cracks in it
  • Gas can (no joke, someone tried to do this)

 


WHAT CAN/CAN’T BE BYOC

ACCEPTABLE BYOC ITEMS

NOT ACCEPTABLE BYOC ITEMS
  • Bulk bin items
  • Bulk herbs & spices
  • Bulk home care
  • Bulk body care
  • Bulk liquids (honey, maple syrup, coconut aminos, MCT oil, etc.)
  • Café Hot Bar items
  • Café Salad Bar items
  • Café drip coffee (tare weight not required)
  • Soap (tare weight not required)
  • Café Soup
  • Café Kombucha (unless using 10,16, 32, 64 oz container)
  • Any product already in packaging

 


You may be wondering why we are offering BYOC for some products and not for others. Unfortunately at this time, our café products like Kombucha on Tap are priced by volume, not by weight, so they are not part of BYOC... yet. We want to be completely transparent with you and let you know we are working on making BYOC the best it can be!

FAQ


WHY ARE SOME OF YOUR BULK ITEMS AND PRODUCE STILL IN PLASTIC CONTAINERS?
- BYOC is the first step we are taking to reduce our waste. We are working on switching out these products and finding solutions for plastic packaging
- some produce require containers or plastic wrapping to preserve the freshness of them.  Berries for example will start to go bad the more they get touched which is why they are kept in clam shell containers
- Repack items are in containers that are made from Polypropylene which is recyclable and BPA free. Those in cello bags are also recyclable (as long as the cardboard is removed)

WHY NOT USE COMPOSTABLE CONTAINERS?
- Compostable containers are currently not accepted in the City of Calgary green bins, thus as soon as they leave our store they are considered garbage (this goes for all other compostable packaging you receive elsewhere)
- The compostable containers we use in the café and all other compostable packaging in the store is accepted in the Community Natural Foods compost as we use HOP as our compost service
- Compostable packaging is also more expensive so the price of the product would go up for customers if we switched
- All of our Grab & Go packaging & Repack containers are recyclable

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Community Natural Foods BYOC Program
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