Wakefern Food Corp. Announced It has Joined Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag
KEASBEY, NJ - Wakefern Food Corp. has entered an esteemed retail partnership this week as the company joins other big-name players in upping the industry’s sustainable efforts. Becoming a part of the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag and its Beyond the Bag Initiative, Wakefern will work alongside a collective of retailers to identify, test, and scale solutions for a more consumer-friendly, sustainable retail bag.
"For more than four decades the Wakefern Cooperative has supported sustainability through efforts such as recycling plastic bags and other materials, reducing food waste, and implementing energy efficient technology at retail and in our distribution centers. Encouraging our customers to use reusable bags to shop and reducing dependency on single use plastic and traditional paper bags is another important part of our commitment to the environment,” said Karen Meleta, Wakefern’s Chief Communications Officer. “We believe the best bag is a reusable bag, and we are proud to work with fellow Consortium Partners and innovators to create an even better retail bag and further advance our waste reduction initiatives.”
The Beyond the Bag Initiative is a three-year effort to create sustainable and cost-effective retail bag solutions. Founding partners include Target and Walmart, working alongside other retailers Dollar General, Kroger, Albertsons Companies, Hy-Vee, Meijer, and more. The Consortium engages with stakeholders including suppliers, materials recovery facilities, municipalities, advocacy groups, and others. The Consortium takes a holistic approach to identify and scale affordable, accessible, and less wasteful retail bag alternatives, spanning multiple complementary workstreams, spurring innovation, advancing materials recovery through infrastructure investments, and identifying best practices for policy and engaging consumers.
Wakefern’s banners already carry a variety of reusable bags, and the company looks forward to discovering even better, more sustainable designs for a better bag at checkout, according to a press release.
“Wakefern’s connection to the communities its stores serve, and its alignment with the Consortium’s broader vision, lays the essential foundation for meaningful impact at scale,” said Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, which launched the Consortium. “We are thrilled to welcome Wakefern Food Corp. to the Consortium to help build more pathways for collaboration that will create and incentivize sustainable, long-term change for retail.”
As more retailers join in on this valiant effort, our team at AndNowUKnow will keep you up to date.
