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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Russ Wallace has been a faithful user of reusable grocery bags since he moved North 25 years ago.

"I just find them handier all the way around," he said, before listing off his reasons for using them.

Russ Wallace heaves up two of his reusable grocery bags in front of the Yellowknife Direct Charge Co-op on Tuesday. Wallace has been a reusable bag devotee for nearly 25 years. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

"They can carry more than the plastic bags and they're environmentally friendly, too. You can use them over and over," he said.

"That's two pretty good reasons I guess, eh?"

There could soon be more shoppers like Russ cruising the city's grocery store aisles.

The Government of the NWT has put a tender out to provide 30,000 reusable shopping bags to be given to residents across the territory.

Ken Hall, manager of environmental protection with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said he hoped NWT residents would use the bags to reduce the waste produced by single-use plastic bags.

"Using one bag a thousand times certainly beats using a thousand bags once," he said.

If you reduce the production of waste materials, you reduce waste overall, he said.

Government estimates put the number of plastic bags used per year by NWT residents at six million.

"As far as volumes of landfills go, they don't occupy a large volume there. But it is still a large number of individual bags," he said, adding litter related to plastic bags is a big concern with residents across the city and territory.

Hall, who has been using the reusable bags himself for years, said this was the government's next step in the expansion of the waste reduction and recovery program.

He said the promotion of the initiative could begin in a few weeks and the bags could be in residents' hands in a few months.

Hall did not know as yet what the program would cost, as the tender is still open for bids.

However, he said the program will be funded outside the department's budget by surpluses from the successful beverage container program.

"We are building on that success," he said.

Hall said the government program will complement the efforts of businesses in town already promoting reusable bags.

Last October, the Yellowknife Direct Charge Co-op's board of directors considered instituting a five cent charge on plastic bags to discourage people from using them.

Mark Needham, president of the board, said the Co-op asked members what they thought of the idea and received mixed feedback.

"Some people told us it was the best idea in the world and some thought we would be the biggest fools if we implemented this," he said.

"We would have frustrated a large number of people had we implemented a charge," he said.

Members told directors they reused plastic bags for things like picking up after dogs or as trash bin bags.

Some people also said they found they forgot their reusable bags at home or in their vehicles when they went in to shop, said Needham – something Wallace said happens to him from time to time.

Needham said the Co-op has offered reusable bags for far below cost and encouraged shoppers to use them.

The efforts seem to be working.

"Our purchase of plastic bags, year over year, are down," while business was up, said Needham.

He said plastic bag purchases for July to September 2008 were down 13 per cent compared to the same three-month period the previous year.

Whitehorse and Iqaluit, have both proposed plastic bag bans.

In the legislative assembly on Tuesday, Michael Miltenberger, minister of ENR, said the government plans to eliminate single-use retail bags within the next two years.