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Eliminating Single-Use Plastics
Eliminating Single-Use Plastics

The Need to Reduce

Five trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year and more than 99% are never recycled.

As a trusted retailer and partner in our communities, we have an obligation to operate in a sustainable way that benefits everyone. Giant Eagle has established an aggressive goal to eliminate single-use plastics from our operations by 2025. By reducing the use of plastic bags at checkout and designing more eco-friendly packaging we’re able to divert significant waste from our landfills.

Together, we have the potential to divert up to 12.4 million pounds of plastic annually:



Reducing Plastic Bags at Checkout

To achieve our goal of removing single-use plastics from our operations, we’re starting to eliminate single-use plastic bags from our registers. So far, we have successfully removed plastic bags from all GetGo locations, as well as our supermarkets in:

  • Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH
  • Erie, PA
  • Carmel, IN
  • Columbus, OH

As we expand this elimination across our enterprise, *we have the potential to prevent 6.5 million pounds of plastic bags annually from ever reaching landfills.



Innovative Giant Eagle Brand Packaging

In addition to reducing plastic bag usage, we are actively working to reduce the amount of single-use plastic that our products come packaged in. Some ways we have accomplished this so far include:

  • An ongoing partnership with How2Recycle, who helped us add instructions for Guests to best dispose of packaging and encourage the best recycling practices.
  • Transitioning our Own Brand fresh chicken from a foam tray to a fully recyclable PET 1 tray, representing 1 million pounds of plastic that will be diverted from landfills annually.
  • Adding resealable film tops to our lettuce boxes, eliminating more than 30% of the total weight of the packaging—that’s over 100,000 pounds less plastic used!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Each year, Americans use 100 billion single-use plastic bags. It takes all of us to address this national – and global – issue. As a retailer committed to the communities we serve, Giant Eagle is doing its part to reduce the global impact of single-use plastic bags and promote the use of environmentally- friendly reusable bags.

In December 2021, we proudly relaunched efforts to remove single-use plastic bags from registers within Giant Eagle supermarket, Market Districts and GetGo locations. GetGo has paved the way, already effectively eliminating plastic bags from all locations. GetGo’s efforts will divert 450,000 pounds or over 27 million plastic bags from landfills annually. In April 2022, Giant Eagle removed plastic bags from our Giant Eagle and Market District locations in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH and Erie, PA. We are taking the next step by removing plastic bags from supermarket locations in Columbus OH, and Carmel, Indiana. As we continue to expand plastic bag elimination across our markets, we have the potential to prevent 6.5 million pounds of plastic bags from ever reaching landfills.

Paper bags are not the answer. We are happy to make paper bags available to Guests, but we will charge a fee per bag. Importantly, Guests paying with forms of government assistance will not be charged for.

All supermarkets in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and in and around Erie, Pennsylvania, Columbus, Ohio and Carmel, Indiana. Additionally, all GetGo stores have removed single-use plastic bags from all locations. As we move forward, we plan to roll this effort out to other markets. See full list of stores here.

The focus is currently on single-use plastic bags at the checkout lanes, in-store cafes, and pharmacy checkout of participating Giant Eagle and Market District locations. Guests will continue to find plastic bags at the meat, seafood, and deli departments and other areas of the store.

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