Whole Foods Market will eliminate plastic straws by July 2019 and replace its rotisserie chicken containers with plastic bags that use 70 percent less plastic than the hard packaging.

Both of these changes come after the grocer already reduced the size of its plastic produce bags earlier this year. The company said that these three combined initiatives will reduce about 800,000 pounds of plastic each year.

At Whole Foods Market-operated venues in the stores, such as cafes and juice bars, customers can request recyclable, compostable and Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper straws.

“For almost 40 years, caring for the environment has been central to our mission and how we operate,” said A.C. Gallo, president and chief merchandising officer at Whole Foods Market. “We recognize that single-use plastics are a concern for many of our customers, team members and suppliers, and we’re proud of these packaging changes ... We will continue to look for additional opportunities to further reduce plastic across our stores.”

Whole Foods has almost 500 stores in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Under its parent company, Seattle-based Amazon, the retailer is No. 10 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States. </s> Whole Foods Market has announced plans to eliminate plastic straws from its stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom by July 2019.

Whole Foods Market has one store on Maui and three stores on Oahu.

The Texas-based grocer acquired by Amazon said by July, single-use, plastic straws will be removed from its Allegro coffee bars, juice bars and cafes. Customers will instead be offered paper straws with frozen drinks or upon request. The paper straws are Forest Stewardship Council-certified, recyclable and compostable.

The company said, however, it will offer a plastic straw option for customers with disabilities.

In addition, Whole Foods switched to smaller plastic bags in its produce department this year and is replacing plastic rotisserie chicken containers with new bags that use approximately 70% less plastic.

Together, these changes are expected to reduce an estimated 800,000 pounds of plastic per year.

“For almost 40 years, caring for the environment has been central to our mission and how we operate,” said A.C. Gallo, Whole Foods President and Chief Merchandising Officer, in a news release. “We recognize that single-use plastics are a concern for many of our customers, Team Members and suppliers, and we’re proud of these packaging changes, which will eliminate an estimated 800,000 pounds of plastics annually. We will continue to look for additional opportunities to further reduce plastic across our stores.”

Whole Foods said these efforts to reduce plastic have been ongoing.

In 2008, Whole Foods Market became the first U.S. grocer to eliminate disposable plastic grocery bags at checkout. Recently, Whole Foods eliminated all polystyrene foam meat trays in its stores in the U.S. and Canada. The grocer also provides customers with salad boxes made of commercially compostable material. </s> NBC – Whole Foods says they are planning to eliminate disposable plastic straws from its stores in the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom this summer. The company, which is owned by Amazon, is believed to be the first national grocery store chain to make the change.

By July, plastic straws will be removed from The Allegro Coffee Bars, juice bars and cafes inside Whole Foods markets. Customers will be offered paper straws with frozen drinks or upon request, however, plastic straws will still be available to customers with disabilities.

Whole Foods has also switched to smaller plastic produce bags and will soon use bags for rotisserie chicken instead of hard plastic containers. They say these initiatives are expected to reduce an estimated 800,000 thousand pounds of plastic per year. </s> (WHDH) — Whole Foods announced Monday that it be will be banning plastic straws across all of its 500 stores in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The company claims to be the first national grocery chain to take this step, adding to its other initiatives to become environmentally friendly.

In 2008, they stopped offering disposable plastic bags and now offer paper bags and reusable plastic bags.

Whole Foods also plans to use smaller produce bags to help cut down on waste.

The straw ban goes into effect in July; however, customers living with disabilities can still request plastic straws.

Other companies, including Starbucks, Disney and McDonald’s, have also made plans to move away from single-use plastic straws. </s> PHILADELPHIA (CNN) — Responding to customers’ demands, Whole Foods is ramping up its war on disposable plastic. The Amazon-owned company announced Monday that it will stop offering plastic straws across all of its 500 stores in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Whole Foods claims it’s the first national grocery chain to make the environmentally friendly move.

The company currently offers plastic straws to customers at its juice and coffee bars, as well at its cafes. Beginning in July it will start offering paper straws.

However, plastic straws will still be available for customers with disabilities, upon request.

Whole Foods will also reduce its plastic usage in other parts of the store. It will also offer smaller plastic bags in the produce department and will start using new bags for its rotisserie chickens that use 70% less plastic than the hard plastic cases they will replace.

“We recognize that single-use plastics are a concern for many of our customers, Team Members and suppliers, and we’re proud of these packaging changes, which will eliminate an estimated 800,000 pounds of plastics annually,” Whole Foods’ chief merchandising officer AC Gallo said in a statement.

The company stopped offering disposable plastic bags in 2008. It now only offers paper bags, and it sells reusable plastic bags.

Top retailers and companies have been cracking down on using plastic because of the material’s environmental damage.

Plastics are expected to outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050 and massive amounts of it have piled up in landfills, some emitting greenhouse gases and contributing to global warming over the near-eternity they take to degrade.

Starbucks announced in February that it redesigned its cold cup lids so they won’t require a straw at all. By 2020, it will eliminate single-use plastic straws at its more than 29,800 locations around the world.

Disney is in the midst of eliminating single-use plastic straws and plastic stirrers at its parks and McDonald’s announced last year plans to move from plastic to paper straws at its locations in the UK. </s> Whole Foods Market will remove plastic straws from its nearly 500 stores by July 2019, making it the first national supermarket chain in the United States to do so.

The plastic straws will be replaced with "recyclable and compostable" paper straws at all domestic Whole Foods locations, including its cafes, and coffee and juice bars, the company said in a news release. Stores will still carry plastic straws as an option for persons with disabilities.

Along with the U.S., the move to paper straws will go into effect at all Whole Foods stores in Canada and the United Kingdom.

The grocery chain said it will also switch to smaller produce bags and replace its hard plastic rotisserie chicken containers with new packaging they estimate will use 70 percent less plastic.

Concern for the environment is a tenet of Whole Foods' mission, A.C. Gallo, the company's president and chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. The grocery giant predicts the move will eliminate 800,000 pounds of plastic each year.

"We recognize that single-use plastics are a concern for many of our customers, Team Members and suppliers, and we’re proud of these packaging changes, which will eliminate an estimated 800,000 pounds of plastics annually," Gallo said. "We will continue to look for additional opportunities to further reduce plastic across our stores."

The Plastic Pollution Coalition, a non-profit organization aimed at eliminating this type of pollution, estimates about 500 million plastic straws are used in the U.S. per day.

"These short-lived tools are usually dropped into a garbage can with no further thought, instantly becoming a source of plastic pollution," their website states.

The decision by Whole Foods — a subsidiary of Amazon — is just the latest in a trend of entities moving away from plastic.

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New York state's ban on single-use plastic bags was signed into law in April and will go into effect in March 2020. California and Hawaii already have similar legislation in place.

Starbucks, in July 2018, announced plastic straws would be replaced from all of its more than 28,000 global locations with strawless lids and "alternate-material" straws. </s> CLOSE In 2018, the United Kingdom-based McDonald’s branch made a significant commitment to rid its restaurants of plastic straws in 2019. Time

Whole Foods Market is eliminating disposable plastic straws from its stores in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom in July, the company announced Monday.

It's believed to be the first national supermarket chain to do so.

The straws are used at Allegro coffee bars, juice bars and cafes and instead, customers can get recyclable, compostable paper straws. However, Whole Foods said plastic straws will still be available for customers with disabilities.

The Austin-based chain, owned by Amazon since 2017, said it also has reduced the size of its plastic produce bags and is replacing rotisserie chicken in bags, rather than hard plastic containers. The bags contain 70% less plastic.

Whole Foods Market was acquired by Amazon in 2017. (Photo: Kelly Tyko, USA TODAY)

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The trio of initiatives is expected reduce an estimated 800,000 pounds of plastic per year, according to Whole Foods.

“For almost 40 years, caring for the environment has been central to our mission and how we operate,” Whole Foods president A.C. Gallo said in a statement. “We recognize that single-use plastics are a concern for many of our customers, team members and suppliers. ... We will continue to look for additional opportunities to further reduce plastic across our stores.”

Whole Foods is not among the biggest grocers in the U.S. Walmart is the largest grocery retailer and Kroger, the biggest traditional chain.

“It’s a first strike that will reinforce Whole Foods’ original positioning as the retailer that cares about the planet,” said Phil Lempert, founder of supermarketguru.com, which monitors industry news and trends.

But the move is unlikely to lure cost-conscious food shoppers from other stores to the chain nicknamed Whole Paycheck due to its high prices, he added.

“But it will get those who have an eco-bent, especially Generation Z and Millennials, to have a better feeling about Whole Foods,” Lempert said.

Numerous other businesses are already axing plastic straws. For example, last year, Starbucks announced plans to eliminate plastic straws at its stores around the globe by 2020 and McDonald's revealed plans to roll out paper straws in the U.K. and Ireland and to test paper straws in select restaurants in the U.S., France, Sweden, Norway and Australia

Other industries taking action include airlines Delta, American and Alaska; cruise lines, such as Royal Caribbean and Hurtigruten; entertainment venues, including SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Disneyland Paris; the food-service company Bon Appétit Management, whose 1,000-plus clients include museums and college campuses; and hotels, like Marriott, Hilton and Four Seasons.

CLOSE Shortly after Seattle enacted a ban on plastic straws and utensils, Starbucks announced that it is phasing out plastic straws nationwide by 2020 (July 10) AP

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Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/20/whole-foods-drop-plastic-straws-us-stores-july/3739491002/ </s> A&W Canada announced Friday that it will ban plastic straws, saying the move will save about 82 million of the single-use products from landfills each year.

The company made the announcement to coincide with World Oceans Day, adding they will be eliminated from stores by the end of the year.

It claims to be the first major fast food restaurant chain in North America to make the move.

READ MORE: Man begins 6-month swim across Pacific Ocean — and through 1,600 km of trash

“Reducing waste from landfills is a top priority for A&W and this is one big way that we can make a difference,” Susan Senecal, CEO of A&W Canada, said in a press release.

Once plastic straws are phased out, the restaurant will use paper straws that are sustainably sourced and biodegrade within three to six months.

A&W Canada follows several other companies and governments around the world who have pledged to reduce plastic waste, and specifically eliminate straws, in the past few months.

Several independent restaurants have recently made the promise as well.

Among the companies promising to ditch plastic is IKEA, which said it plans to phase out single-use plastic products from its stores by 2020 in an attempt to reduce its carbon footprint.

READ MORE: Ikea plans to ban single-use plastic products by 2020

Last month, the European Union announced proposed plans to ban plastic products like cotton buds, straws and stir sticks.

It is expected to be a topic at the G7 summit in Quebec on Friday as well.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants the other leaders to sign on to a zero-waste plastics charter, setting international deadlines for eliminating plastic waste and committing to helping the developing world meet similar deadlines.

WATCH: Plastic straw ban? Trudeau will look to G7 leaders to take the lead

Trudeau released his own statement on Friday to mark World Oceans Day.

“This year, World Oceans Day coincides with the first day of the G7 Summit, where Canada will bring together world leaders and heads of international organizations to fight climate change and preserve the health and resilience of our oceans, coasts, and seas,” the statement read.

The Trudeau government has not made a formal commitment yet to eliminate plastic waste, but is currently asking Canadians to weigh in on the issue of plastic waste in an online discussion.

READ MORE: Canada reducing (but not banning) use of plastics at G7 in Quebec

Greenpeace Canada has been pushing for more action on the issue. The organization says the plastic pollution crisis has hit an epidemic level and Canada already produces more garbage per capita than any other developed country.

“We want Trudeau and the other G7 leaders to know that in order to get to the real heart of the problem with plastic pollution they really need to address it at the source, and one way to do that is to ban single-use plastics,” said Greenpeace Canada plastics campaigner Farrah Khan.

— With files from The Canadian Press </s> Ikea has promised to eliminate single-use plastic items from its home furnishings and food services operations by 2020.

The Swedish home furnishing giant says it will stop using products such as plastic straws, plates, cups, freezer and garbage bags.

It will also be phasing out the use of disposable plastic in their in-store restaurants.

These changes are expected to take effect by the end of 2019 across 29 countries, including all Canadian locations.

This move is part of a corporate commitment to environmental sustainability, including prolonging the life cycle of products and switching to exclusively renewable or recycled packing materials by 2030.

According to the Conference Board of Canada, Canada produces more garbage per capita than any other developed country. Canada has made plastic reduction a key priority for this week’s G7 following British Prime Minister Theresa May’s move to ban single-use items like plastic straws and cotton swabs in the U.K.

Single-use plastic has become increasingly recognized as a major source of pollution. In 2016, world plastics production totalled around 335 million metric tons. A study from UC Santa Barbara estimated 4.8 million tons of plastic end up in the world’s oceans annually.
Whole Foods Market announces it will eliminate disposable plastic straws in July from its stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.