Walmart to Phase Out Single-Use Bags in New York State
As part of the company’s continuing efforts to reduce waste, Walmart stores throughout New York State will no longer provide single-use paper bags at checkout or pickup as of Sunday, Jan. 18, 2023.
To smooth the transition for customers, Walmart offers various types of reusable bags and containers for purchase throughout its stores and at the registers. Additionally, associates will be available to help 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 buy reusable bags for their delivery orders. Customers can also recycle their plastic and reusable bags in the recycling containers found in the vestibules of each 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 on this journey, and we remain committed to making the sustainable choice the everyday choice.”
As of June 2022, the company had eliminated single-use paper and plastic bags in Canada and Mexico, as well as Vermont, Maine and New Jersey in the United States. Beginning 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 that it will avoid the use of more than 1.2 billion plastic and paper bags annually. Its stores began offering new Walmart-branded reusable bags in October 2022 to ensure that 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 enacted bans of such bags.
In New York, Walmart operates 111 retail units and employs 38,762 associates. Each week, approximately 230 million customers and members visit Walmart’s more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites under 46 banners in 24 countries. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company employs approximately 2.3 million associates worldwide. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
