Shop With Reusable Bags and MY ECO and Peabody Schools Benefit

When you shop at Shaw's, a portion of the proceeds goes to a Peabody school of your choice...if you use a reusable shopping bag and download the MY ECO app for your smartphone, that is.

The DECA club at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School has teamed up with Kristen Brown, who launched MY ECO in September, to bring her program to Peabody. Students in turn will use the local campaign they've created here in their end of year competitions.

DECA co-residents Chris Ciampa and Shantel Silva and Vice President Austin Solimine presented their plans to the School Committee recently and explained there are really three goals for the project.

Those goals are to reduce plastic bag use and consequently reduce the amount of material hauled away for trash and recycling in Peabody as well as drum up local financial support for the city's schools.

The way it works is that you download the MY ECO app for your phone, select Peabody High or one of the city's elementary schools as your Fundraising choice when registering for the program and then go shopping with a reusable bag at a participating supermarket. The middle school will be added soon as well.

The QR code for the school you've chosen will be scanned at the register using the app on your phone and 40 cents of every $100 will then be donated to your school.

DECA has established a nonprofit account for PVMHS and similar accounts were set up for the other schools.

Right now, Shaw's is the only participating supermarket, but Ciampa and Silva said they're talking with Market Basket, Hannaford and other local stores to partner with as well.

You can also purchase a MY ECO reusable shopping bag kit from the DECA club for $25 (PVMHS receives $7 of that amount). The kit contains bags of different sizes and ones for cold or hot items.

DECA students will be at Shaw's selling kits on Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. and explaining how the program works.

DECA is also teaming up with the PVMHS environmental club on the project.

The app will also keep a tally on how many plastic bags you've kept out of a landfill each time you shop and MY ECO has a behavioral scientist who will follow up with registered users of the program via email.