A Second Life for Twist Ties
At OGC, we handle a lot of produce. That means every day, our in-house repack team sorts through cases of fresh organic fruits and veggies, making sure only the best reaches our customers. But in the process, we end up with literal piles of twist ties, barcode tags, and elastic bands. The little heroes that bundle things like green onions and make sure our customers can actually scan their produce at checkout.
For years, those tiny bits of plastic and wire had one fate: the landfill. And honestly? That just didn’t sit right with us. So, we found a better way.
From Trash to TagBack
Enter TagBack®, an initiative from Bedford Industries, the very folks who manufacture those produce tags. Instead of tossing them out, we now collect and return them to Bedford, where they’re given a second life—upcycled into new tags or, in some cases, turned into something unexpected, like outdoor furniture. A park bench in your community might have started as an elastic band around a bunch of organic chard.
We first learned about TagBack from OGC customer PCC Community Markets. (It’s a reuse program they plan to roll out in their stores in the future.) Since starting this practice last summer, OGC filled its first TagBack collection box, diverting 30 pounds of twist ties and tags from the landfill. Thirty pounds of tiny, seemingly insignificant bits of wire and plastic. And that’s the thing—it’s always the little stuff that adds up.
Why This Matters
There’s no perfect, one-size-fits-all solution to handling packaging waste (trust us, we wish there was). But what we can do is chip away at the problem, one small but meaningful step at a time.
Twist ties and produce tags might not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of sustainability. But in the end, sustainability isn’t just about the big changes. It’s about the little choices that add up to something bigger. And at OGC, we’re all in—twist ties and all.
If you’re an OGC Will Call customer, you can toss your recycled tags into the TagBack drop box at our facility when you pick up an order. If you’re a retail customer, farmer or packhouse interested in keeping twist ties and tags out of the landfill, contact tagback@bedford.com to learn more and request a collection box.