Natural Environment Blog

Wal-Mart has announced that they plan to cut their plastic bag waste by a third by 2013.

They plan to achieve this goal by selling reusable bags. Wal-Mart already sells reusable bags for a dollar each, but they plan to make these even more affordable, with a cheaper model being released next month in Arkansas. 

The initiative is expected to cut the equivalent of 9 billion plastic bags from stores each year, and eliminate more than 135 million pounds of plastic waste globally in the next five years. 

Wal-Mart say that their aim is to reduce plastic bag waste by 25 percent in the U.S., and 50 percent worldwide.

Matt Kistler, senior vice president for sustainability at Wal-Mart says:

If we can encourage consumers to change their behavior, just one bag at a time, we believe real progress can be made toward our goal of creating zero waste”

This is encouraging news, although I wonder what’s stopping them from aiming a bit higher. A 25% reduction in the U.S. doesn’t seem like much. But I guess it’s a good start. 

And at least the world will have 9 billion less paper bags each year.

Then, we’ll need to figure out how to get rid of the other 999,999,991,000,000,000 plastic bags that we use each year!Wal-Mart to Reduce Plastic Bag Waste by 33 Percent

As mentioned previously, China released new standards for plastic bags which will ban ultra thin plastic bags from being produced.

These standards are to take effect from today.

The new law also bans supermarkets and other retailers from providing free plastic bags to their customers. If a retailer wishes to provide plastic bags, they need to charge for them.

Some retailers are concerned about this. They’re worried that they will drive customers away if they charge too much for the plastic bags. Further to this, the plastic bags that are fully degradable are usually more expensive than the non/less-degradable bags. No doubt, this will also have an impact on supermarkets’ pricing decisions.

Hopefully the Chinese will embrace the idea that there are alternatives to plastic bags. Also, now that they’re being forced to pay for plastic bags, more Chinese will start taking their own reusable shopping bags to the supermarket. Given China’s enormous population, this should reduce the world’s plastic bag consumption quite considerably.

Having said this, only time will tell.

I just read this article on the CBCNews website regarding the reduction in orders for plastic bags across Manitoba. It seems that, ever since supermarkets started selling reusable bags, the number of orders for plastic bags has dropped by about 5 percent.

Great news for the environment.

This is a recurring theme too. As soon as retailers offer reusable bags, orders for plastic bags take a dive.

Another example is Australia. Between 2002 and 2005, plastic bag usage dropped from 6 billion to 3.92 billion. That’s around 35 percent less plastic bags! This was helped by the federal government’s campaign to encourage Australian’s to carry reusable bags to the supermarket. This campaign spawned the “Green Bag”, which is available at many supermarkets across Australia.

Individual retailers can make a difference too - regardless of the government’s policy. For example, Fred Meyer has revealed that it used 3.5 million less plastic bags in 2006 than in 2005. The reduction was a direct result of their reusable grocery bag program.

Further to my post about China’s new standards for plastic bags, here’s an article in the China Daily about a new variety of plastic bag. These plastic bags come with safety tips and suggestions on preserving the environment.

And yes, given the amount of awareness of the environmental impact of plastic bags, this does seem quite ironic. The fact that the plastic bag was even produced is not good for the environment.

But, as ridiculous as this may seem at first, I think the idea has enormous potential. If the right message is planted on these bags, it could have a very positive impact on the environment. After all, by placing a message on plastic bags, you’re targeting those people who haven’t yet chosen to carry reusable bags.

Time will tell.