Washington, DC – Kroger, one of the world’s largest supermarket chains, today announced plans to phase out single-use plastic bags across its family of stores by 2025. Seattle’s Quality Food Centers (QFC) will be the company’s first retailer to complete the transition in 2019.
The news follows the release of Greenpeace’s Carting Away the Oceans report, which ranks supermarkets nationwide on sustainable seafood. This year, Greenpeace also assessed retailers’ efforts to phase out and eliminate single-use plastics from their operations, finding that none of the retailers had comprehensive plans to reduce their single-use plastic footprint.
In response to today’s news, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner David Pinsky said:
“Kroger’s decision to phase out single-use plastic bags is a testament to how consumers are demanding action on plastics from retailers nationwide. Kroger should build upon this effort by getting rid of additional types of single-use plastic. Plastic bags are important for retailers to eliminate, but so are plastic bottles, styrofoam trays, and plastic-wrapped fruit and vegetables.
“Plastic pollution is not only killing whales, sea turtles, and albatrosses, it is impacting human health. Plastic is in our drinking water, our seafood, and even the air we breathe. We cannot afford to wait any longer for significant action on plastics.”
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Contact: Perry Wheeler, Greenpeace Senior Communications Specialist, P: 301-675-8766
