Kudos To Walmart For Starting The Change To Save Our Environment.

Is Walmart starting a new trend? Hopefully. After doing research on the subject for a recent challenge and learning that plastic bags can take up to 40 years, or in excess of a hundred years depending on their make-up, I was rather excited the other day when I saw a tweet indicating that Walmart would be going bagless by July 1st, 2021. This, unfortunately, was not entirely true. I would however like to commend Walmart on their stance and what would appear to be their commitment to being part of the solution.

The truth is, that starting on July 1, all Maine Walmart stores are going bagless. Walmart customers will need to bring reusable bags and containers for pickup and in-store shopping. As Maine gets ready for a legal ban on plastic grocery bags, the chains are converting to get ready for being bagless on July 1st. The decision is a good way to demonstrate the company's commitment to advancing sustainable initiatives that support people and the environment. This is all a part of the companies ongoing mission to reach net-zero emissions in its' global operations by the year 2040.

Maine's plastic bag ban goes into effect on July 1. The law was supposed to go into effect in April of 2020 but was unfortunately delayed because of the pandemic. Its intent is to limit plastic pollution by encouraging shoppers to use reusable bags. According to the State of Maine's Environmental Protection Agency, once the law is in effect, all carry-out bags provided or made available by retailers must be either a reusable bag or a recycled paper bag.

Globally, people use about 1 trillion plastic bags a year, and each bag has a dismally short span of use. The use of the average plastic bag is as little as 12 minutes before it ends up being discarded. What's worse, is fewer than 10% according to Jane Ewing, Senior Vice President of Sustainability, are actually recycled. Single-use bags continue to be one of the top ten items found along beaches and in waterways. It's a massive challenge that must be approached as an industry according to Ms. Ewing.

I'm all for reusable bags being the thing of the future. Hopefully, as stores and businesses pull away from using plastic bags more and more, we will see this become one way that we can all protect our waterways, our oceans, and our world. It does, however, present one obvious question that some stores had to face during the pandemic. The pandemic led to a lot of confusion about whether it was safe to bring reusable bags into grocery stores. While some stores allow them, others don't. The science on how the virus spreads has evolved, leaving some to question the need to continue reusable bag bans.

When the pandemic first hit the states, scientists weren't as sure about how the virus spreads as they are today. They thought touching infected surfaces and then touching your eyes or mouth could be a major or main contributor. Now, as scientists are starting to realize that the virus needs a host, more and more people are participating in the vaccination programs, people have begun to question continuing the reusable bag ban.

So, while there has been a flagship program in Vermont Stores, stemming from Vermont's paper bag only law, there's a forthcoming ban on plastic bags coming in Maine that will permanently end the use of plastic bags, and the push to end the production and use of the bags throughout Mexico in the store locations there, no, Walmart is not banning plastics on July 1. At least they're starting to be a participant in the future protection of our planet. Walmart is a founding partner in the "Beyond the Bag", so Kudos to you Walmart for helping to push the industry in the right direction.