Wegmans Sacks Plastic in New York

Following a successful two-store pilot at its Corning and Ithaca, N.Y., stores, Wegmans Food Markets said it would eliminate single-use plastic grocery bags from all its New York stores on Jan. 27. The removal of plastic bags comes ahead of a state ban that takes effect on March 1.

The Rochester, N.Y.-based grocer is the latest retailer to pull plastic bags from its stores. Giant Eagle of Pittsburgh stopped using single-use plastic bags at its grocery stores in Cuyahoga County on Jan. 1, and Burlington, Vt.-based City Market Onion River Co-Op said it would end using plastic bags in April.

Wegmans said its goal is to shift all customers to reusable bags. At stores where the county or municipality choose not to institute a 5-cent fee for paper bags, Wegmans will charge 5 cents per bag. The amount collected from the paper-bag charge will be donated to the local food bank serving each region.

“By adding a charge for each paper bag, our hope is to incentivize the adoption of reusable bags, and in time, achieve our goal of eliminating all single-use bags,” said Jason Wadsworth, Wegmans packaging and sustainability manager, in a statement. “This approach has proven successful at our two-store pilot.

“On average today, 20% of the bags used across all Wegmans stores are reusable. However, at our pilot stores in Corning and Ithaca, we’ve flipped that statistic so that only 20% of the bags used are single-use bags.”

Since Wegmans introduced reusable bags in 2007, the company has put an emphasis on educating customers about the benefits and added convenience they offer.

A recent companywide survey of Wegmans customers found that 95% already own at least one reusable bag, and 87% have three or more.

The survey further revealed that customers who regularly use reusable bags do so for four main reasons: environmental benefits, sturdiness, handles and ease of packing.

“We learned a lot from the pilot that will help ensure a smooth transition out of plastic bags in the rest of our New York stores for our customers and employees,” said Wadsworth.

Wegmans first announced in April that it would eliminate plastic single-use grocery bags ahead of the New York ban.