Grocery Store-Led Plastic Bans

As consumers put more pressure on corporations to take action against single-use plastic, one grocery store stands out: Sobeys. By the end of January 2020, the grocery store chain will remove all plastic grocery bags from over 250 locations across Canada, reducing 225 million plastic grocery bags out of circulation each year. This ban will also affect Sobey's other retailers including Safeway, FreshCo, and Foodland.

The grocery chain also launched the 'OurPart' pledge asking shoppers to commit to bringing a reusable bag each time they shop. While Sobeys in encouraging its shoppers to bring their own bags, the retailer will be selling large reusable grocery bags for 99 cents, smaller reusable bags for 25 cents, and paper bags are available for 10 cents, with a portion of paper bag sales going to plant trees in Canada.

This isn't the first eco-friendly commitment made by the brand. In 2019, Sobeys debuted its first parking lot paved using post-consumer plastics, which drastically divert the amount of waste entering local landfills as the parking lot contains the equivalent of over six million recycled single-use plastic bags.