Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK
May 09, 2021 - 1:19 PM
Safeway grocery stores across Canada are no longer offering plastic grocery bags to customers.
Kamloops Safeway assistant manager Landon Harvey said the store stopped offering the plastic grocery bags as of Wednesday, May 5. Other Safeway locations across the country have also banned plastic bags.
“We are offering paper offerings as well as many different reusable options as well,” he said. Cloth bags are being offered for 25 cents and paper can be purchased for 15 cents.
“The incentive to switch out of single-use plastics is giving our customers an offering for the really cheap cloth ones as well,” he said. The stores accept customers' own reusable bags.
In 2019, Sobeys, which operates Safeway, announced it would be the first national grocer to eliminate plastic bags.
“The change will take 225 million plastic grocery bags out of circulation at Sobeys’ 255 locations across Canada each year,” according to a Sobeys press release.
“Starting with eliminating plastic grocery bags from Sobeys stores in 2020, the company will quickly follow with phasing out plastic grocery bags and introducing paper bags in all
other banners including Safeway, FreshCo, Foodland and others.”
The retailer is also launching programs to reduce plastics in other areas of the store and encourage customers to choose reusable bags that can be used repeatedly and returned for recycling at Sobeys stores.
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