Retailers Team to Tackle Bag Waste

The Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag announced a continued collaboration with several of the world’s best-known store chains to expand its work to eliminate single-use bag waste. Target, CVS Health, The Kroger Co., Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Meijer and Walmart are among those renewing their commitment in the consortium, an industry collaboration managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy.

The Consortium has also released a new report, “Sparking a National Culture Shift to Reduce Plastic Bag Waste,” which  shares findings from the consortium’s largest in-market reusable bag tests in 2023, which spanned 160 retailers and 375-plus stores of all sizes across Denver and Tucson, Ariz. Through the tests, retail stores encouraged consumers to develop the habit of bringing their bag or opting to go without one, resulting in nearly 5% fewer single-use plastic bag transactions. This equated to the potential elimination of up to 9.5 million bags annually across the two test geographies, demonstrating the impact of supporting customers at different stages of their journey to reuse a bag or go without one.

“We are proud of the shared progress achieved with the consortium and across the retail industry over the past four years, meeting shoppers where they are with accessible, adoptable alternatives to single-use plastic bags,” said Agata Ramallo Garcia, VP, Head of Enterprise Sustainability at Target. “The partnerships we continue to forge through the consortium demonstrate the power and need for collaboration in order to innovate and scale solutions that will meaningfully reduce single-use plastic bag waste.”

Said Kate Daly, Managing Director and Head of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners: “As we expand from ideation to implementation of solutions that support customers and reduce single-use bag waste, we aim to drive a cultural change toward reduction and reuse.”

Click here for more on the consortium’s efforts.