$4.9 million stewardship fees

During calendar year 2008, our operations in Ontario and Québec paid an estimated $4.9 million in provincial stewardship fees to help cover 50% of the costs of municipal packaging and printing material residential curbside bluebox recycling programs. Due to Éco Entreprises Québec’s (EEQ) retrospective fee collection system, our Québec operation’s 2008 obligation to EEQ is estimated.

Waste management
Waste management

Recycling paper into weekly advertising flyers

Like all grocery retailers, each week Sobeys Ontario distributes millions of advertising flyers across the province. In 2008, the region used over 9,600 metric tonnes of recycled paper to produce its flyers. By using recycled paper instead of virgin stock, it’s estimated that the region has saved almost 127,500 trees from being used for newsprint. Use of recycled paper also has less impact in terms of water use, greenhouse gas emissions and energy use while diverting newsprint from landfills or recycling.