Leading retailers join forces to find single-use bag alternatives

CVS Health, Kroger, Target, Walgreens and Walmart are working together as part of a new partnership to identify alternatives to single-use shopping bags. The companies all are founding members of the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, a new partnership with the Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy — a center for innovation focused on advancing a circular economy.  

Collectively, the consortium members plan to invest more than $15 million into achieving the group’s goal: identifying, piloting and implementing innovative alternative designs for the single-use bag at retail.

“We believe in serving our guests and communities with actions that reduce our footprint on the planet," said Amanda Nusz, Target’s vice president of corporate responsibility. “We’re proud to partner with Closed Loop Partners and other leading retailers to take on a challenge facing the entire industry, and we welcome others to join us in this collective effort as we aim to design a better solution.”

 In August, the “Beyond the Bag Initiative” will be inviting innovative thinkers to submit their designs for a new retail bag that is both easy to use and environmentally friendly. Winning designs will go through testing and potential piloting. More information on the design call and the initiative can be found here.