Walmart has launched a bagless pilot in Vermont, which underlines its commitment to achieving zero waste and moving towards a circular economy where materials that are used stay in use. According to the retailer, 78 percent of its Vermont customers support bagless options and key learnings from the pilot will be used to determine future direction for the company’s bagless efforts.
In addition, Walmart Mexico y Centroamerica is going bagless due to new regulations banning plastic bags. “Instead of offering yet another single-use solution, we made the decision to go fully bagless and encourage our customers to look to reusable bags,” said Jane Ewing, senior vice president, sustainability at Walmart, in a statement.
Back in 2020, Walmart joined Closed Loop Partners’ Beyond the Bag effort as a founding partner, along with Target and CVS Health. Since then, the initiative launched the Beyond the Bag Challenge, which encouraged participants to submit their ideas for alternative solutions to single-use bags.
Out of 450 submissions, nine winners were chosen, who will each receive a portion of $1 million in non-equity funding and are eligible for additional funding and support from Closed Loop Partners’ to help with testing, piloting, and scaling their efforts.
“We’re committed to a more sustainable way of doing business, and we believe that somewhere out there, beyond the bag, lies a brighter, cleaner future,” added Ewing.
Related: CPG Companies Propose Plastic Packaging Tax; Zero Waste Meal Kit Launches.