Category: Retail

Packaging, Retail

How Walmart is testing sustainable bags

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Read the full story at Grocery Dive.

Walmart is making progress toward finding sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic bags through several in-store pilots and initiatives, Jane Ewing, the retailer’s senior vice president of sustainability, wrote in a blog on Friday.

A Walmart store in Santa Clara, California piloted a solution called Fill It Forward that lets customers scan a tag on their reusable bags each time they use them to accumulate points, which then convert into monetary donations to a local organization. Another store in Mountain View, California, piloted Goatote, which lets customers “check out” reusable bags via an app that are free if returned within 30 days or cost $2 if customers keep them.

Walmart’s efforts to encourage reusable bag usage come as cities and states, like New Jersey, are imposing bans on single-use plastic bags and retailers are responding with initiatives to replace them. 

Regulation, Retail

EPA’s shift in chemical and hazardous materials regulation and what retailers can expect

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Read the full story from Retail & Consumer Products Law Observer.

Retailers need to prepare for a major shift in chemical regulation policy recently announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that could affect a broad range of products currently being sold in the US. Under this sweeping new policy, EPA plans to address chemical risks by directly regulating articles that are manufactured with those chemicals. Crowell environmental attorneys, Warren Lehrenbaum and Jennifer Giblin, addressed this and other important developments at EPA in a wide-ranging question and answer session with the Retail Industry Leaders Association on Tuesday, October 5, 2021.

China, Retail

This new Shanghai Starbucks has only reusable cups—and reusable everything else

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Read the full story at Fast Company.

At a new Starbucks store in Shanghai, customers won’t be able to get their coffee in a paper cup. Every option in the store is reusable, including new grande-size reusable cups that the company is rolling out for the first time. It’s one part of the retailer’s approach to embracing a circular design in the store.

Corporate sustainability, Packaging, Retail

Walmart to cut virgin plastics use

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Read the full story at Recycling Today.

Walmart has pledged to reduce the use of virgin plastic in its packaging by 15 percent by 2025. The company made the announcement at its sustainability milestone summit following engagement with As You Sow, a Berkeley, California-based nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy. The company agreed to set a plastic reduction target in May following the filing of a shareholder resolution by As You Sow.

Retail, Supply chain

Williams-Sonoma ramps collaboration with sustainable supply chain organizations Fair Trade USA and Nest

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Read the full story at ESG Today.

Home retailer Williams-Sonoma announced new sustainable supply chain initiatives, including growing its investment in Fair Trade USA, and increasing its investments in purchases of Nest Ethical Handcraft product. Williams Sonoma Inc.’s brands include Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen, West Elm, Williams Sonoma Home, Rejuvenation, and Mark and Graham.

Circular economy, Fashion & beauty products, Green lifestyle, Retail

Adidas and ThredUp want to resell your used footwear

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Read the full story in Fast Company.

The program aims to “extend the lifecycle” of clothing items by rewarding consumers with points in exchange for their old gear.

Packaging, Retail, Transportation

What does a sustainable future in on-demand delivery look like?

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Read the full story at edie.

Glovo’s head of social impact and sustainability Sébastien Pellion, how logistics, manufacturing and transport will need to converge on new sustainability solutions to appease the demand of consumers.

Circular economy, Fashion & beauty products, Packaging, Retail

Loop reusable packaging system expands beyond e-commerce to new stores, including Kroger

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Read the full story at Waste Dive.

Loop, a reusable packaging program from TerraCycle, has announced it will soon offer some of its products in select U.S. and Canadian retail stores. The program offers products from well-known brands in specialized returnable containers.

Loop will roll out the program “in the coming weeks” at some Fred Meyer stores in Oregon, and will follow up with pilots at several Burger King and Tim Hortons locations later this year. Walgreens, Ulta Beauty and other retailers are expected to join the program early next year, said CEO Tom Szaky during a presentation last week. Woolworths in Australia will also join.

The expansion pivots Loop from an e-commerce site to also having a presence in brick-and-mortar retailers with a “buy anywhere, return anywhere” model. Pilots have already started at Tesco and McDonald’s in the United Kingdom, Aeon in Japan and Carrefour in France. Worldwide, the Loop portfolio includes about 500 products from over 150 companies, Szaky said.

Environmental law, Greenwashing, Retail

Court dismisses Greenpeace lawsuit against Walmart

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Read the full story at Waste Today.

Sept. 20, U.S. District Court Judge Maxine Chesney dismissed a lawsuit Greenpeace Inc. filed against Walmart in late 2020, saying the organization lacked standing for the case to be considered on the merits. In the suit, Greenpeace USA alleges that Walmart uses unlawful, unfair, and deceptive business practices by incorrectly labeling and advertising its various private-label plastic products and packaging as recyclable.

Circular economy, Retail

Upstream CEO sees huge potential in burgeoning reuse-refill sector, including for haulers

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Read the full story at Waste Dive.

Matt Prindiville, head of a nonprofit focused on holistic waste solutions, is at the center of discussions with brands and activists alike about not just relying on recycling for a circular economy.

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