"Rolling Back" the Plastic Bags
It was announced this week that three northern California Walmart stores are officially charging extra for plastic bags at checkout. Sounds like it’s time to think green and bring your own bag! After all, Natural Products Shoppers have been doing it for years, its definitely time more mass market folks jumped on board.
The going rate for plastic bags at these northern California stores is 15 cents for regular bags or 50 cents for oversized bags. I haven’t seen too many complaints from shoppers yet. Of course, Northern California tends to be a bit eco-aware anyways, so perhaps it was strategy to roll out the program here and slowly phase it into stores in other regions and states.
Charging for bags is step two in Walmart’s “Bring your own Bag Movement,” which was started back in October 2009. The discount retailer has a goal to reduce waste reduction of 33 percent by 2013.
It’s great to see that the retail giant is making a commitment to the environment. In addition to the “Bring your own Bag Movement,” Walmart is actually funding a global initiative project to develop tools to index the sustainability of all consumer packaged goods. They are working with many reputable universities and corporations such as Waste Management, Disney, Cargill, Pepsi and others. Natural Products Marketplace and our parent company, Virgo Publishing, with host a seminar on this very topic next month at our Focus on the Future Conference. I am planning on sitting in for that presentation. I will take notes and let you know how things are progressing.
Jodi Rich
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