New Seasons Market and its subsidiary, New Leaf Community Markets, will eliminate single-use bottles of water from stores by Earth Day, April 22. This is the latest effort in New Season’s Market’s work to reduce waste in local communities.
Sales of water in capacities of one liter or less, bottled in single-use plastic, fiber, aluminum, or glass containers will be discontinued from all locations.
“Combined, beverage bottles, caps, and lids make up the second most common form of ocean litter. By committing to using reusable bottles, we can remove almost 200,000 single-use plastic, aluminum, and glass bottles a year,” said Athena Petty, senior sustainability manager at New Seasons Market, in a statement. “We’re starting efforts with still water in containers one liter or less because opting for reusables is an easy individual choice to help lessen our collective environmental impact.”
New Seasons Market will continue to offer larger sizes of water in the grocery department, as well as single-serving bottles of sparkling and flavored water that are not available from the tap. To help customers transition their habits, stores will continue to offer one refillable single-serve bottle of still water from Pathwater, an organization committed to ending single-use plastics.
Related: Sir Kensington's Launches New Packaging; CPG Companies Propose Plastic Packaging Tax.