Sunset Foods to partner with local Aargus Plastics to provide closed-loop plastic bag recycling at all Sunset Foods and Grand Food Center locations

In early 2020, Sunset Foods learned that their packaging supply partner could not verify the end usage of the plastic bags that customers where dropping in the recycle bins in their stores. With this knowledge, the plastic bag recycling program had to be put on hold. Since that time, they have been striving to re-introduce this service. They had yet to learn how difficult it would be to find a way to collect plastic bags and guarantee that they end up as recycled and reused material and not simply in a landfill. “We spoke to everyone we could when trying to find a solution,” said Sarah Hanlon, Director of Marketing for Sunset Foods. “Wholesale vendor partners, garbage companies, local green initiatives, and sustainability boards in our communities. Either they couldn’t offer the service or prove where these bags end up.” 

While attending a board meeting in Northbrook, Sunset Food’s General Manager, Frank Lomoro, noticed a plastic bag collection bin in the village hall lobby. “I immediately thought I may have just found a solution.” With that discovery, Sunset Foods is thrilled to offer plastic bag recycling once again. They have partnered with Aargus Plastics, Inc., a local Wheeling company, to produce their plastic bags and provide a collection and recycling solution for the community’s plastic bags. With collection bins in all five Sunset Foods locations and their two Grand Food Center locations, they are confident their customers will be pleased. “Our customers have been asking for this service to return. They want to make the sustainable choice with their plastic and again have that option while shopping with us,” said Hanlon. 

Aargus has been in business for nearly over sixty years and recycling plastic for nearly fifty. Sunset Foods is excited to partner with another family-owned local company passionate about its work. With a facility that sorts and recycles plastic into post-consumer use trash bags right here in Illinois, Aargus can be relied upon to do as they say. With an entirely closed-loop process from a single provider, Sunset Foods is confident that with Aargus Plastics, they are again offering a valuable service to their communities.

Aargus website - https://www.aargusplastics.com/