Australian retailer Coles announced that it has diverted 1.7 billion lightweight single-use plastic bags from landfill since abolishing them from checkouts last year.
Image: Australian retailer Coles has diverted 1.7 billion single-use plastic bags from landfill. Photo: courtesy of Coles.
The new data has showed that the customers of the retailer have changed their shopping habits significantly in the past one year, with seven in 10 bringing reusable Community Bags.
Coles’ range of Community Bags helped to raise $2.5m for community organisations such as SecondBite, Guide Dogs, Little Athletics, Clean Up Australia and Aspect schools.
Coles COO Greg Davis said that the removal of single-use plastic carry bags is one of the ways that the retailer is working towards becoming most sustainable supermarket in the country.
Davis added: “When we announced in 2017 that we would remove lightweight single-use plastic bags from our stores, we knew we would have to support customers to help them form new shopping habits.
“Our Community Bags are one way we have helped customers who forget to bring their bags from home.
“We partner with a range of community groups who benefit from the sale of our Community Bags and it is fantastic to see the positive outcomes achieved through the sale of these bags in just 12 months.”
The proceeds from the sale of Community Bags have been used to deliver more than two million meals for Australians through SecondBite and provide grants for new sports equipment for around 220 Little Athletics centres, as well as offer Disaster relief packs to households in Townsville during the February 2019 floods.
Coles is a major retailer in Australia with more than 2,500 retail outlets. It is also a national full service supermarket retailer that operates over 800 supermarkets.
Coles Online provides customers with a choice of home delivery, including same-day and overnight drop and go services, or pick up from more than 1,000 Click&Collect locations.
Coles, which is also a national liquor retailer with 900 stores, trades as Liquorland, Vintage Cellars, First Choice Liquor and First Choice Liquor Market.
In addition, Coles Express is a major fuel and convenience retailer with more than 700 sites across the country.