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Whole Foods Market has announced that it's going to ban disposable plastic bags from its stores by Earth Day -- that's 22 April to you and me. The company has launched a campaign called Bring Your Own Bag, which encourages customers to bring reusable bags along to the shops to cut down on waste.
This is the sort of move you would expect from a company like Whole Foods Market, but the impact is huge nonetheless. The chain has 270 stores spread through the US, Canada and the UK, so the amount of plastic kept out of landfill will really mount up.
Whole Foods wants 'paper or plastic?' to be a question of the past, so they're encouraging people to bring in their own carrier bags. "Really, any bag will do old, new, paper, plastic, fabric, even backpacks or woven baskets! You'll feel good about helping our environment and we'll even give you a refund of at least five cents per bag," the company says in a statement.
In the UK all the Fresh & Wild stores, which are owned by Whole Foods Market, and the flagship store in Kensington already award bag-ladies -- and bag-men? -- for bringing their own bags by knocking five pence off the total bill.
For those customers who forget, or are unaware of the policy, there will be 100 per cent recycled paper bags for emergencies. Unfortunately Whole Foods won't charge for them so we hope customers will embrace the five pence initiative so the scheme doesn't just turn into replacing plastic with paper, which isn't nearly as big of a step.
24 January 2008 02:23pm
I think this is great! I hope a lot more companies will see this and follow "Whole foods" example. At least the bags they are offering, if you don't bring your own, are recycled.
A lot of people still don't know about the plastic bag issues, maybe with such a bold move it will become common knowledge.
Tammy- www.TheGREATBag.com Cotton reusable grocery bags
24 January 2008 08:10pm
Yep, come on Waitrose, Sains and M&S - you're all singing about your green stuff! Catch up with this US interloper already
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