Wally World Goes Green?

Wal-Mart Thursday announced to reduce its plastic shopping bag waste by an average of 33% per store by 2013. This is expected to eliminate more than 135 million pounds of plastic waste worldwide. To help reach this goal, Wal-Mart will reduce the number of bags given out by its stores, promote the use of reusable bags and give customers the ability to keep recycling plastic shopping bags. The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting.

“By reducing the number of plastic bags our customers use, increasing the availability and affordability of reusable bags and providing recycling solutions, we think we can eliminate plastic waste equivalent to 9 billion plastic bags per year from our existing stores alone,” said Matt Kistler, senior vice president for sustainability of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. “If we can encourage consumers to change their behavior, just one bag at a time, we believe real progress can be made toward our goal of creating zero waste.”

Wal-Mart’s bag reduction strategy is being developed in partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). This goal could have far-reaching environmental and economic benefits. It is estimated that approximately 60-80 percent of all marine debris is plastic. Cutting back plastic shopping bag waste could also help to reduce government spending. For instance, the state of California spends about $25 million per year to discard plastic bags into landfills.

“By pledging to cut its bag waste by one-third by 2013, Wal-Mart is taking a clear step forward in reducing global waste,” said Gwen Ruta, vice president for corporate partnerships at Environmental Defense Fund. “Plastic bags clog our landfills, litter our roadways, harm sea turtles and other wildlife, and gobble energy in production. With this initiative, Wal-Mart is demonstrating that innovation leads to both business and environmental benefits — a premise that underpins EDF’s work. I look to retailers everywhere to do the same.”

According to Wal-Mart, their efforts could reduce energy consumption by roughly 678,000 barrels of oil a year and reduce CO2 emissions by 290,000 metric tons per year — equivalent to taking more than 53,000 passenger vehicles off the road annually.

As part of the goal to trim plastic bag waste, Wal-Mart stores in Mexico and the U.S. are introducing new, more affordable reusable bags. Earlier this month, Wal-Mart de Mexico introduced reusable bags at one-third the cost of its current bags. In the U.S., Walmart will offer reusable bags starting in October for 50 cents each.

Wal-Mart’s commitment to cut back plastic bag waste globally by 33% includes a 25% reduction from U.S. stores and a 50% reduction from their international operations. Across the globe, Wal-Mart and its subsidiaries have the flexibility to meet this goal through a three-pronged strategy of reduce, reuse and recycle. Options for reaching the goal include, but are not limited to:

• Reduce: Decrease the amount of plastic blending into our bags and also make sure bags are being loaded properly, reducing the number of plastic bags required per shopping trip to the store

• Reuse: Increase reusable bag use among their customers by making them convenient and affordable and educating customers on the environmental benefits of reusable bags

• Recycle: Increase number of plastic bags being recycled.

This new goal is an aggressive company-wide target that encourages local-level creativity and builds upon efforts currently underway. A few examples of plastic shopping bag reduction initiatives taking place in Wal-Mart’s global business include:

• South America: In the past two years, Argentina has seen a 20% reduction in plastic bag use through better cashier training. In the past five years, Brazil has seen a 20% reduction in plastic bag usage through its “One More Item per Bag” program.

• Asia: In Japan, Seiyu began selling “replace for free” reusable bags in June 2007. As of September 2008, 46% of its customers now use their own bags. In China, Wal-Mart offers 15 types of reusable bags.

• Europe: ASDA has removed single use carrier bags from all of its checkouts. Since June 2008, ASDA has reduced the amount of plastic bags used in its stores by 30%.

• North America: Wal-Mart estimates that it has sold enough reusable bags in the U.S. to eliminate the need for one billion plastic bags since October 2007. Wal-Mart Canada has minimized plastic bag waste by 15% in the last year by offering affordable reusable bags and improved recycling.

Based on the recent news, this goal is built upon their previous commitments at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. At the 2007 meeting, Wal-Mart engaged to transition the entire liquid laundry detergent category in its U.S. stores to concentrated detergent. The goal, met in May 2008, served as a catalyst to transform this category across the retail industry. Within three years the commitment is expected to save more than 400 million gallons of water, 95 million pounds of plastic resin and more than 125 million pounds of cardboard.

In 2006, Wal-Mart also committed, through the development of a packaging scorecard, to reduce packaging in its supply chain by 5 percent by 2013. Since February 1, 2008, Wal-Mart’s U.S. customers have been able to use the online packaging scorecard as a tool to make more informed purchasing decisions. Suppliers can also use the scorecard to measure how their packaging helps Wal-Mart reach its goals to be supplied 100% by renewable energy, create zero waste and sell sustainable goods. Wal-Mart is now working to bring the packaging scorecard to its international markets as well. What’s next? Better wages and benefits for their employees perhaps? [Wal-Mart]

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