CANADA – Shoppers Drug Mart, a subsidiary of Loblaw Companies Limited has opted to ditch single-use plastic shopping bags from all its stores from 31 January.
The retailer will encourage customers to bring their own bags when shopping, as well as offer a variety of reusable alternatives available at checkout lanes.
The move is in line with Shoppers Drug Mart’s goal to reduce its customers’ reliance on single-use plastic and minimize their overall environmental footprint.
Shoppers Drug Mart front store and category management senior vice-president Pat Dean said: “Our commitment to fight climate change by reducing our carbon footprint is an important part of our company’s purpose.
“Cleaner communities make for healthier communities, and we’re pleased to do our part to reduce the amount of single-use plastic entering our natural environment.”
The retailer says it has committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, though its timeline sets the deadline as 2040 for “scope 1 and 2.”
It says it is also working toward reducing plastic waste by moving to reusable or recyclable packaging by 2025.
The move comes barely two months after Loblaws discontinued the use of single-use plastic shopping bags at stores across the Northwest Territories, including Glen’s Independent Grocer and Rochdi’s Independent Grocer.
Loblaws said that banning single-use plastic shopping bags aligns with its commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 for Scope 1 and 2, and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 for Scope 3; reduce plastic waste by making all of its control brand and in-store packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025; and send zero food waste to landfill by 2030.
The move also comes after Canada announced in December it would ban the production and importation of most single-use plastics in an effort to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030.
The ban covers items like checkout bags, cutlery, straws, and food-service ware made from or containing plastics that are hard to recycle, with a few exceptions for medical reasons.
The government said that the sale of those items will be prohibited as of December 2023 to provide businesses in Canada enough time to transition and to deplete existing stocks.
The government formulated the law after a research study published by Environment and Climate Change Canada in 2019 revealed that 3.3 million tonnes of plastic were thrown out.
The study also said less than one-tenth of that plastic was recycled, with most ending up in landfills, where it will take hundreds of years to decompose.
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