Walmart Canada expands plastic-bag reduction initiative to more provinces

TORONTO (Scrap Monster): Walmart Canada has decided to expand its plastic-bag reduction initiative to stores in more provinces during the month of May this year. The initiative, successfully implemented in B.C effective Feb 9th, will now be expanded to Walmart stores in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Québec during the month of May 2016.

Walmart Canada will stop providing plastic bags to customers in these provinces for free. Instead, customers will have to pay five cents per single-use plastic bag. In addition, reusable bags will be offered at a discount of 25 cents per bag, in an attempt to eliminate plastic from landfill and promote the use of reusable bags.

"While we're making strides, we recognize the critical role our customers, suppliers and our partners play in reducing waste," said Lee Tappenden, chief operations officer at Walmart Canada. "As part of our mission to reduce plastic film waste to create a greener, cleaner Canada, we are asking customers to move away from single-use plastic shopping bags and toward reusable bags."

The company press release states that part of the money generated by 5-cent charges will be used to support recycling industry’s efforts to recover plastic films. Additionally, an in-store education and awareness campaign to boost post-consumer film collections will be launched at all its store locations across the country. It has also decided to launch more efficient in-store recycling and collection programs by partnering with suppliers.

B.C’s single-use plastic bag consumption has dropped significantly during the initial three months since the launch of the initiative. The consumption declined by 19 million bags during this period upon comparison with the corresponding three months in 2015.

Walmart Canada, a division of Arkansas-based Walmart Stores, Inc., operates a growing chain of 397 stores nationwide serving more than 1.2 million customers each day. With more than 95,000 associates, Walmart Canada is one of Canada's largest employers and is ranked one of the country's top 10 most influential brands.