New market coming to Fredericton will be plastic-free

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A new market in Fredericton is looking to provide an eco-friendly alternative to the city's market scene.

The ECO Market in Marysville will be a zero-plastic food and craft market.

The market will be held on Fridays at The Ville Cooperative in the northside Fredericton neighbourhood.

"We don't even offer the option of plastic," said Kaity Harquail, the market's co-ordinator. 

"It's either paper or a reusable bag."

Harquail said the go-to option will be packaging any items in a paper bag, but they will have locally made reusable bags available as well.

If customers choose the reusable bags they will have to buy them, but will then get a discount on future purchases.

Plastic free popular

Harquail said it does cost the cooperative a bit more to have a plastic-free market, but not as much as people think, and the demand is there for the service.

"It actually brings in a lot more people because you're plastic-free," said Harquail.

"People want to be plastic-free and are willing to come to our stall rather than somebody who has a lot of plastic."

Many of the products that will be offered at the market are grown at the cooperative.

The Ville already has a stall at the Thursday Night Garrison Market in downtown Fredericton and has adopted a plastic-free philosophy for that location as well.

The reviews have been positive.

"So far people are actually very supportive of us and are actually preferring to use the reusable bags rather than the paper bags," said Harquail.

"I don't know if that's just for the discount but I'm assuming it's because people actually do want to be sustainable and want to use eco-friendly products."

The first ECO Market will be held on July 19 at the Ville Cooperative in Marysville.