Greenpeace Report Condemns U.S. Retailers for Poor Rate of Elimination of Single-Use Plastics

The new report published by Greenpeace states that U.S. grocery retailers have effectively failed to reduce the distribution of throwaway plastic bags, which are identified as the primary cause for marine litter. The report titled ‘Packaging Away the Planet’ provides detailed analysis of efforts undertaken by 20 of the largest U.S. grocery retailers in eliminating single-use plastics.

The Greenpeace report ranks companies based on scores obtained by each company based on its current policies and innovative ideas to reduce plastic waste. These scores are put on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 to 39.9 as failing, 40 to 69.9 as passing and 70 to 100 as excellent.

According to the report, none of the 20 retailers featured in the passing or excellent scale. Aldi scored the highest points of 34.6, based on its efforts to achieve plastic reduction target through comprehensive plastic waste reduction plan. The commitment to banning all single-use checkout bags helped Kruger achieve the second highest point. Albertsons, Trader Joe’s and Sprouts finished third, fourth and fifth in ranking respectively. On the other hand, Meijer, Wakefern, and H-E-B ended up at the bottom of the rank list, as they were found lacking any meaningful effort to tackle plastic pollution crisis.

David Pinsky, Greenpeace Plastic Campaigner noted that U.S. grocery retailers sell large quantities of single-use plastics every day, but fail to act on addressing the pollution crisis caused by them.