TORONTO — Effective Friday, Jan. 31, Sobeys will remove all plastic grocery bags from its 255 Sobeys supermarkets across Canada.
The company is the first national grocery retailer to stop using single-use plastic bags.
Plans for Sobeys' other banners, including Safeway, FreshCo, Foodland and others have not been announced.
However, in a statement Wednesday, the company said that after Jan. 31, it "will work to phase out single-use plastic checkout bags" at these stores as well.
The statement said more information and dates will be made public when they are available.
Sobeys estimates that 225 million plastic bags are currently distributed annually at its Sobeys outlets.
For customers who don't bring their own reusable bags to these stores, the company sells large reusable bags for 99 cents, smaller reusable bags for 25 cents, and paper bags for 10 cents.
It said a portion of paper bag sales revenue goes toward planting new trees in Canada.
