MORGANTOWN — Within seven years, customers at all Kroger stores will no longer have single-use plastic bags to pack up their groceries.
The company announced this week that, as part of its Zero Hunger/Zero Waste program, it will be transitioning from single-use bags to reusable ones.
“For the time being, most of our stores will continue current bagging policies,” said Alison McGee, corporate affairs manager for Kroger Mid-Atlantic.
She said she’s not sure exactly when Morgantown customers will begin seeing the transition. However, QFC, which is a division of Kroger located in Seattle, will be the first division to get rid of the single-use bags. That should happen in 2019.
“We want to give customers time to transition to a new way of doing things, and we want to take time to solicit customer feedback on the most sustainable, long-term replacement for single-use plastic bags,” McGee said.
Kroger stores currently offer Zero Hunger/Zero Waste reusable bags that they urge customers to purchase. For every bag purchased, a meal is donated to a hungry family.
According to a Kroger release, estimates say there are about 100 billion single-use plastic bags thrown away each year in the United States. And less than 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled in the U.S.
Those facts are one of the main reasons Kroger Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen said it’s essential to make the transition.
“It’s a bold move that will better protect our planet for future generations,” he said.
To learn more about the Zero Hunger/Zero Waste program, visit krogerstories.com.
