US retail giants collaborate to solve plastic bag conundrum

27 Jul 2020 --- The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners has initiated a “groundbreaking” consortium with CVS Health, Target and Walmart to reinvent the single-use plastic bag.

Having pledged to fund the initiative with US$15 million, the consortium welcomes “suppliers, designers and problem-solvers” to submit environmentally sustainable design solutions and standard plastic bag alternatives to its Beyond the Bag Challenge.

The winning solutions will be eligible to enter a Circular Accelerator to test, refine and hone their solutions. PackagingInsights speaks with Closed Loop Partners and Break Free From Plastic on the pioneering potential Beyond the Bag has to reduce retail-driven plastic pollution.

“The Beyond the Bag Initiative takes a holistic, long-term view of the challenge and solutions, aligning customer convenience and product innovation with the infrastructure for recovery or reuse of any alternative retail bag or delivery system developed,” details Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners.

The three-year initiative will have multiple workstreams: innovation, recovery infrastructure and customer and community engagement. “[The three workstreams] will intersect, evolve and build on one another as we identify multiple solutions that will stand the best chance for success in the marketplace,” explains Daly.

Collectively, the consortium partners have committed more than US$15 million to launch the Beyond the Bag Initiative. Funding will go toward establishing the various workstreams and advancing a less wasteful future. As the consortium’s founding partners, CVS Health, Target and Walmart will play an active role in mentorship, technical expertise and investments in R&D compared to other partners, innovators and stakeholders across the initiative. Walgreens also joins the initiative as a “supporting partner.” 

Research shows that over 100 billion single-use plastic retail bags are used in the US every year and less than 10 percent recycled.

With an initial focus on implementation in the US, the initiative is also engaging partners from grocery, convenience, home goods and apparel. 

For example, Kroger is the grocery sector lead partner, acting as the main representative and liaison between grocery and directing priorities and activities for the initiative. 

Furthermore, the consortium invites additional retailers “to join in to help create a less wasteful future,” says Closed Loop Partners. 

What is expected?
Open to applicants for six weeks, the challenge encourages potential solutions that could constitute reusable models, all-together bagless alternatives or innovative materials, says Daly. Solutions may explore point of sale checkout, in-store pickup, local delivery from retailer or other key moments along the “retailer to destination” journey. Importantly, the key priorities must retain consumer convenience, functionality, accessibility, inclusiveness and positive environmental outcomes.

Commenting on the Beyond the Bag initiative from across the Atlantic, Break Free From Plastic shares with PackagingInsights its “hopes to see the consortium ambitiously invest in reuse and refill systems for the health of our planet and our communities.”

“We have only just begun transitioning from a throwaway culture to robust reuse systems and [environmentally] sustainable lifestyles. To reinvent the retail shopping bag, we must reinvent how we shop. Refill and reuse is the only effective way to reduce plastic pollution and waste. It is time to change paradigms and take bold and ambitious steps to implement sustainable reuse systems,” says Estelle Eonnet, Europe Communications Officer at Break Free From Plastic.

In celebration of the 11th annual Plastic Bag-Free Day, PackagingInsights recently spoke with Surfrider Foundation Europe, who called upon the European Commission to implement more stringent plastic bag legislation. The non-profit organization also advocates for EU Member States to remove exemptions on biodegradable and bio-based plastic bags, considering the ambiguous definitions of these terms may mislead or confuse consumers.

Meanwhile, a landmark report by The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ stresses that the problem with plastic lies within its end-of-use disposal. Upon immediate and collective global action from political leaders, policymakers, business executives and investors, the report details that the plastic pollution problem could be solved in a generation. 

“Single-use plastic bags are polluting our waterways and our oceans, accelerating climate change, and destroying the health of frontline communities who live near petrochemical plants and incinerators. What is the externalized cost of a plastic bag?” questions Eonnet at Break Free From Plastic.

By Anni Schleicher