As of June 20, Woolworths supermarkets, BWS, Metro and Woolworths Petrol outlets will no longer provide single-use plastic shopping bags nationally.
The commitment, made last year, to end the use of single-use plastic shopping bags across the Woolworths network eliminates the 3.2 billion plastic bags handed out by the retailer each year across Australia.
“We feel very strongly this is the right thing to do, and that together with our customers we can help create a greener future for Australia,” Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said.
“Our teams have been working hard behind the scenes to accelerate the rollout of this plan so we can start making a positive impact on the environment as quickly as possible.
“We know this is a big change for our customers and store teams, and we need to do all we can to make the transition as seamless as possible for both.”
On Wednesday (April 4), Woolworths removed single-use plastic bags from 12 of its stores, with the company planning close monitoring of customer feedback in preparation for the national rollout in June. The trial stores are in NSW (Marayong, Greenway Village, Dural and Mullumbimby), Victoria (Wyndham Vale, Taylors Lakes and Toorak) Queensland (Mossman and Noosa Civic) and Western Australia (Singleton, South Fremantle and Cottesloe).
Customers will have access to a range of alternative shopping-bag options in store, including thicker, reusable plastic bags at 15¢ each and canvas bags at 99¢.
Woolworths is continuing to trial the removal or reduction of plastic packaging in fruit and vegetables, having recently permanently removed plastic from produce lines such as organic spring onions, celery, kale and English spinach, moves it says will help save more than 25 tonnes of packaging a year.
By June 30, Woolworths will also be offering flexible plastic-recycling options in all supermarkets via the REDcycle program – a closed-loop recycling solution where customers can return soft plastic packaging for its reprocessing into recycled plastic products such as outdoor furniture.
