Sprouts Farmers Market to eliminate single use plastic bags by end of 2023

Sprouts Farmers Market announced it will eliminate single use plastic bags at checkout by the end of 2023. With this decision, Sprouts will remove over 200 million single use plastic bags from circulation each year. Sprouts has already eliminated single use plastic bags at 132 of its California stores and will roll out this initiative in phases next month, beginning with Nevada, Utah, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia stores. Sprouts will offer customers stronger, reusable plastic bags made from 40% post-consumer recycled material that are designed to be reused at least 125 times and will continue to offer customers numerous other reusable bag options for purchase. Sprouts will encourage customers to bring their own reusable bags by charging ten cents per reusable plastic bag. The company has also stopped offering paper bags at checkout as paper bags are generally not reusable, often are not recycled and have a high environmental cost in terms of water, energy and raw materials used in their manufacture. Customers can continue to bring single use plastic bags to Sprouts stores for recycling after use; in 2022, customers recycled nearly one million pounds of soft plastics at Sprouts stores. Learn more about this initiative and Sprouts’ sustainability efforts at sprouts.com/sustainability.