Starting Feb. 9th you will have to start paying for bags at Walmart. Customers will be charged five cents each for plastic bags, with reusable bags available for a discounted rate of 25 cents each. Walmart Canada says the idea is folks will use less bags and this is part of their strategy for cutting down on landfill waste.
Walmart Canada (which has 397 stores and serves more than 1.2 million customers per day) says that the introduction of a small fee in other countries has helped Walmart to reduce the number of plastic bags by more than half and some of the proceeds from the new charge will go toward supporting recycling initiatives for grocery bags and other thin plastic objects. BOTTOM LINE: That is a lot of customers and potentially a lot of revenue…
Some retails analysts are calling this a monumental branding decision (although late) from Walmart, however there is a wait and see attitude from environmentalists to see whether the retail giant really ends up putting resources toward the environment, instead of its own bottom line.
The company said it’s also going to improve in-store recycling and collection programs and work with suppliers to find ways of removing plastic from its packaging. What do you think? Good move or is this really about the environment?
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