Read the full story from the Times of San Diego.
San Diego-based Petco Health and Wellness Co. Inc. Tuesday announced a commitment to increasing its assortment of sustainable products to 50% by the end of 2025.
Category: Retail
This Peeler Did Not Need to Be Wrapped in So Much Plastic
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Amazon must become a leader in reducing single-use packaging.
Startups are trying to make e-commerce packaging more sustainable
Read the full story at Modern Retail.
From beauty and fashion to food and beverage, brands are increasingly looking into ways to reduce waste and improve margins. While more environmentally-friendly packaging is increasing in popularity, a shift to reusable packaging is taking shape. Long term, the idea is to invest in multi-use containers to improve logistics efficiency and reduce environmental damage. While these solutions are more expensive up front, they claim to save brands money down the line.
Pandemic-Paused Plastic Bag Bans Ripped Anew by Critics
Read the full story at Stateline.
The movement to eliminate plastic bags had been advancing in the past few years, with states from New York to California banning them. The bags—a source of pollution, a danger to wildlife and a jamming risk to automatic recycling machines—have been targeted by environmental groups as a menace.
But the pandemic gave fuel to critics and the plastic industry, who cited supply problems and fears of germ transmission early in the crisis, and who now argue that bag bans burden struggling businesses.
Beyond Peak Delivery: Sustainable Shipping Alternatives
The e-commerce market is fast approaching “peak delivery,” and strategic retailers and direct-to-consumer brands are looking for last-mile alternatives that can help them save money, reduce their carbon footprint, differentiate their brands and satisfy customers. Providing delivery options to e-commerce customers is not only necessary in response to worsening environmental and climate scenarios, but it’s also a smart, strategic way to balance the actual needs of customers with the financial needs of the business.
.
How HelloFresh Boxes Sustainability
Read the full story at Winsight Grocery Business.
HelloFresh Group executives take no small measure of pride behind the notion they’ve developed a disruptive business that has tapped into consumer trends toward convenience, personalization and simplicity, providing meal kits that doubled in sales to about $2.5 billion in U.S. during its last fiscal year.
Hidden inside those boxes are other advantages for the business that U.S. consumers may or not realize: A highly efficiency approach to sourcing, selling and packaging, backed by a corporate commitment to sustainability that its officials say is good for the business and even better for people and the planet, the company said.
Walmart pushes zero waste efforts with ‘bagless’ pilot
Read the full story at Grocery Dive.
In an effort to cut back on the use of disposable plastic bags, Walmart has started a “bagless” pilot in Vermont, according to a blog post on Monday from the retailer.
The pilot started Feb. 15, and Walmart stores in the state are now asking customers to bring their own reusable bags or containers, according to several local media reports. The outcome of the pilot will help guide the company’s future bagless efforts, wrote Jane Ewing, senior vice president of sustainability at Walmart.
The Mexican and Central American Walmart division is also going bagless, and more than 72% of the retailer’s stores in Mexico have already stopped providing plastic bags, Ewing wrote. The bagless efforts come at a time when Walmart and other retailers are continuing to ramp up their sustainability initiatives.
Lawsuit takes aim at Walmart’s plastic recycling labels
Read the full story at Resource Recycling.
Environmental activist group Greenpeace this week accused Walmart of falsely labeling items as recyclable and asked a California court to compel the retailer to stop making the claims.
The Dec. 14 lawsuit is focused on Walmart’s recycling labels for packaging made from plastics Nos. 3-7, laying out the relatively low processing capacity for these 3-7 plastics.
The lawsuit includes as examples applesauce and yogurt cups made from 3-7 plastics (the complaint doesn’t specifically identify the resin). The lawsuit takes issue with the How2Recycle labels on the products, labels that identify the packaging as either recyclable with certain instructions, or recyclable depending on local regulations.
Greenpeace says these claims are leading consumers to believe products will be recycled, despite low capacity to recycle these materials in the U.S.
How values-driven companies are setting themselves apart
Listen to the full story from the National Retail Federation.
Retail Gets Real episode 203: PwC’s Ron Kinghorn on the growth of ESG — environmental, social and governance investing in retail
How Much Does Amazon and E-Commerce Contribute to Plastic Pollution?
Read the full story at Waste360.
The issue of plastic pollution continues to compound as the COVID-19 pandemic drives global demand for disposable, safe solutions.
E-commerce sales have a projected growth rate of more than 20% in 2020, a result of economic shutdowns and shelter-in-place orders. The surge has created additional plastic waste with packaging.
A new report from Oceana examined the impact of online shopping to marine ecosystems, specifically analyzing data from the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.
