Whole Foods to go resuable by Earth Day

AUSTIN, Texas Whole Foods Market today said it will end the use of disposable plastic grocery bags at its checkouts in all of its 270 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom by this Earth Day, April 22.

Whole Foods said that it is the first U.S. supermarket to commit to ending the use of disposable plastic grocery bags. In order to kick start the initiative, the company gave out more than 50,000 reusable shopping bags at checkout as part of "Bring Your Own Bag Day" and in celebration of today's announcement.

According to Whole Foods, the company plans to phase out the disposable plastic bags over the next three months while increasing the selections of reusable bags for purchase

"Central to Whole Foods Market's core values is caring for our communities and the environment, and this includes adopting wise environmental practices," said A.C. Gallo, co-president and coo for Whole Foods Market. "More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides. Together with our shoppers, our gift to the planet this Earth Day will be reducing our environmental impact as we estimate we will keep 100 million new plastic grocery bags out of our environment between Earth Day and the end of this year alone."