Pet Valu, the leading Canadian specialty retailer of pet food and pet-related supplies, today announced plans to cease sale and distribution of single-use plastic shopping bags at all corporate and franchised locations across Canada, outside of Quebec, effective November 1, 2022. Customers are encouraged to bring their own reusable shopping bags, and will also have the option to purchase recyclable paper bags at checkout.
“Integrating sustainable retailing practices into our core operations and reducing our environmental footprint are important not only to our organization but also to the millions of devoted pet lovers who shop our stores,” said Richard Maltsbarger, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pet Valu. “By removing single-use plastic shopping bags from our network, we can eliminate more than 7 million bags from circulation annually, many of which would have gone into landfills. Every day we strive to do better and this action marks a significant step in the right direction.”
Today’s announcement follows actions taken by Pet Valu in the last several years to reduce its environmental footprint. In 2019, the Company commenced a comprehensive recycling program for cardboard, pallets and low-density polyethylene (“LDPE”) plastic wrap across its distribution centre network. That same year, lighting at all existing corporate-owned stores and distribution centres was converted to LED, resulting in an approximate 15% reduction in electricity usage per store. Pet Valu realized further energy consumption saving with the implementation of energy management systems (“EMS”) at all existing corporate-owned stores between 2019 and 2021, resulting in an approximate 15% reduction natural gas usage and an additional approximate 15% reduction in electricity usage per store.