Grocery Giant Announces It’s Banning The Use of Plastic Bags In Its Stores
Wegmans has announced its plans to ban the use of single-use plastic bags in all of its stores, with locations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania already exercising the bans.
Many communities nationwide have enacted plastic bag bans over the last few years. Typically news of bans applies to stores at a local level. But Wegmans decided to expand on the idea and started working toward a company-wide ban.
Attempts at banning disposable plastic bags in grocery stores started over a decade ago. Califonia made waves in the retail industry when it enacted the first state-wide bill of its kind in 2014. Since then, nine other states have passed legislation banning single-use plastic bags.
Those states include Maine, California, Vermont, Connecticut, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Delaware. Each law differs slightly in its requirements and imposes minimal fees for replacement paper bags. And while these state-wide bans are not alone.
Various cities and counties nationwide have enacted similar laws. But the inspiration for Wegmans to ban plastic bags came from one notable source – New York. According to the grocer’s category merchant for packaging, energy, and sustainability, Jason Wadsworth, it drew inspiration from that one particular law.
He noted that “We started on this journey in 2019 when we set out to eliminate plastic bags in our New York State stores ahead of the state plastic bag ban. A lot has happened over the last three years, but that early success in New York showed us the impact we could make and drove us to continue on our journey to be plastic bag free by the end of 2022.” And the great news is that Wegmans met its goal early.
The company completed its mission to be plastic bag free at all locations late September. Its 18 locations in Pennsylvania were the last ones that needed to transition. They finalized that switch on September 22.
All Wegmans locations will offer paper bags to customers who forget their reusable bags or simply don’t have them. But there is a catch. Each paper bag will have a $.05 fee attached.
According to WGAL News, the company will donate proceeds from paper bag sales to the appropriate local United Way chapter. So, now Pennsylvania shoppers need to bring their own storage container (reusable bag, box, tote, or hands) to pack up their groceries. Or, they can purchase a paper bag and know that money will go to a good cause.
Since Wegmans transitioned away from plastic bags at most of its locations nationwide, it has gathered solid data to back up the move. The company found that paper bags get used for approximately 20% to 25% of sales. But for most transactions, customers use either reusable bags or opt to carry their groceries out by hand.
The grocer’s leadership team counts these numbers as a success. And they are thrilled to achieve their goal ahead of schedule. Wadsworth said, “Completing our transition out of single-use plastic bags across the company is a big celebration as we continue to expand our sustainability efforts and focus on doing what’s right for the environment.”
And that latter point is what is most important to many. Such plastic bag bans serve as an educational moment for consumers. They learn about the impact of plastic on our environment and help keep millions of pounds of plastic trash from ending up in landfills.
