Walmart to Phase Out Single-Use Bags in New York State
As part of the company’s ongoing efforts to reduce waste, Walmart stores across New York State will no longer offer single-use paper bags at checkout or pickup starting Sunday, January 18, 2023.
To ease the transition for customers, Walmart offers a variety of reusable shopping bags and containers in its stores and at the register. Additionally, associates will be available to assist customers at checkout, while store signage, social media posts and the Walmart app will remind customers to bring reusable bags.
Walmart delivery will continue to use paper bags, given New York State’s ban on single-use plastic bags, but shoppers will have the option to purchase reusable bags for their delivery orders. Customers can also recycle their plastic and reusable bags in the recycling containers found in the halls of every Walmart store.
“Eliminating single-use bags in New York is part of our effort to reduce waste,” noted Jane Ewing, SVP, Walmart Sustainability “Our customers want to be engaged in this journey and we remain committed to them make the sustainable choice the everyday choice.”
As of June 2022, the company had eliminated paper and single-use plastic bags in Canada and Mexico, as well as in Vermont, Maine and New Jersey in the United States. Starting next month, Walmart will expand these efforts to eliminate single-use and plastic bags at its Connecticut and Colorado stores. By eliminating single-use and plastic bags in these six states, Walmart said it will avoid using more than 1.2 billion plastic and paper bags annually. Its stores began offering new Walmart-branded reusable bags in October 2022 to ensure customers have a selection of high-quality, easy-to-reuse shopping bags. The company has improved the placement of reusable bags in stores, created new bag designs and adjusted checkout lines to accommodate the use of reusable bags.
Other retailers that have eliminated or are in the process of eliminating single-use plastic bags include Aldi, Giant Eagle and Wegmans, and 10 states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont. and Washington – have passed bans on such bags.
In New York, Walmart operates 111 retail locations and employs 38,762 associates. Each week, approximately 230 million customers and members visit more than 10,500 Walmart stores and multiple e-commerce sites under 46 banners in 24 countries. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company. employs approximately 2.3 million associates worldwide. Walmart USA is no. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2022 PG 100 list leading food and consumables retailers in North America.
