Bags packaging EPR Alberta: what a paper bag costs per 1,000 packs, 2027

What this page estimates for a paper bag in Alberta

The paper bag on this page is a kraft or white paper bag that carries a product out of a shop or holds it inside a parcel. It has one component, each matched to the published rates of the 2027 schedule of Circular Materials Alberta (ARMA PPP) for Alberta; weight times rate gives a fee per 1,000 packs in CAD. The figures are estimates built on starting weights.

What is in a paper bag

The bag is one paper component. Handles, window patches and inner coatings are not weighed separately in the starting estimate, so weigh a finished bag if yours has them.

Starting weights, an Instica estimate for a typical pack and not a measured weight: bag (paper, 50 g).

Bag

paper, 50 g (Instica starting estimate)

Worked example: 1,000 paper bags in Alberta

One paper bag of the Medium (grocery bag) size weighs 50 g in total. For each component the table gives its weight, the matched published rates, and the fee for 1,000 packs.

Added together, the estimate for 1,000 packs is CA$24.00 to CA$54.50.

Divide by 1,000 for a single pack: about CA$0.0240 to CA$0.0545.

What the fee tool returns for 1,000 paper bags in Alberta

Entered into the public fee tool for Alberta (2027 schedule, effective January 1, 2027), 1,000 paper bags give the figures below. The tool is the same engine that prices a report, so this page and the tool agree.

The tool total is CA$24.00 at the lowest matched rates and CA$54.50 at the highest.

Which published rates were matched in Alberta

2 published rates were matched to the pack in Alberta from the 2027 schedule. Each is quoted from the programme’s own fee table; the page does not change the rate or round it.

Bag, 50 g: 2 matched rates

How size changes the fee for a paper bag

The weight of a paper bag depends on its size. The table prices each of the 3 sizes with the same matched rates, so the only thing that changes between rows is the weight.

Each component of the paper bag priced at every size, at the matched rates for Alberta.

What if the paper bag used another material?

Suppose the main component of the paper bag, weighing 50 g, were made of another material. The table prices the same weight in each material class that Alberta publishes a rate for, at the lowest published rate in that class.

A fee comparison only: another material changes weight and protection too.

What a larger run of paper bags costs in Alberta

Fees scale with the number of packs, because the schedule charges by mass. The table repeats the worked example for larger runs of the Medium (grocery bag) paper bag in Alberta. Nothing else changes between rows: the same weights and the same matched rates apply.

Taken as a whole, the pack is priced at CA$0.48 to CA$1.09 per kilogram of packaging, so a heavier pack costs more in proportion to its weight.

Flat fee bands, registration fees and minimum charges sit outside this per-kilogram table.

How the fee for paper bags has moved on Alberta schedules

Alberta has published 3 per-mass fee schedules that price this pack. The same Medium (grocery bag) paper bags are priced on each below, with the same weights and the same matching rules, so only the published rates differ.

The same matched categories on each Alberta schedule, per kilogram; a dash means the schedule does not publish that category.

The fee schedule behind these figures for Alberta

The rates come from the 2027 schedule of Circular Materials Alberta (ARMA PPP) for Alberta, effective January 1, 2027. The facts below record where it was published and what else the schedule charges.

Ways to lower the fee on a paper bag

Paper weight is the lever with the most effect: a lighter grammage lowers the mass that every fee schedule multiplies.

A plain, uncoated bag is usually read as ordinary paper, while a plastic lining or laminated window can move a bag into a different, often dearer, category.

Twisted paper handles weigh little, but cord or ribbon of another material can be reported on its own line by some programmes.

Sellers who ship in paper bags often buy them by the thousand, which makes the per-1,000 figure on this page the natural unit for comparing suppliers.