Hallelujah and rejoice, my environmentally-conscious friends!

In a very ambitious move, Woolworths has declared that it plans to be the first retailer in all of South Africa to stop using plastic packaging.

They released a statement on Tuesday, saying that “it aims to have none of its packaging end up in landfills, which will require the introduction of 100% recyclable materials and a supportive recycling infrastructure”, a report by BusinessTech explains.

It’s about freakin’ time. What with that thing about using animal fur in T-shirts and using genetically modified ingredients in their foods, the retailer using plastic has become the latest bone of contention with customers.

Not anymore, it seems: Woolies is promising to phase out unnecessary single-use plastics, including shopping bags, and the commitment for all its packaging to be either reusable or recyclable by 2022.

I wonder if it had anything to do with Facebook posts like this, which show just how much of their packaging is not recycled:

Better late than never.

In fact, plastic reduction has already begun at selected Woolworths stores:

• Plastic straws are no longer being sold.
• Wooden cutlery and paper straws are being rolled out in NowNow and WCafes with a view to phase out plastic cutlery and straws completely.
• Plastic ear buds will be replaced with paper-stemmed earbuds by the end of October
• A pilot coffee cup recycling programme is currently underway in NowNow stores, with a view to rolling out nationally.
• The retailer is testing reverse recycling vending machines, where customers can bring in their recyclables and put them into the vending machine so that they can be recycled.
• Woolworths is also testing a new range of affordable reusable shopping bags.

Woolies are really patting themselves on the back for their fight against plastic pollution. But in the end, it’s all for the good of the environment and life itself (honestly, we want to prevent another “dead whale killed by plastic” situation from happening again).

Zyda Rylands, the CEO of Woolworths South Africa, said:

We know that many of our customers fully support our zero packaging waste to landfill journey and they want to see it happen as fast as possible. But this is not a path that we can walk alone. To succeed, we need our customers, our suppliers and the South African recycling industry to work with us.

Critical to the success of these ambitious goals is the continued commitment to partner with government and industry (recyclers, packaging converters, producer responsibility organisations) to develop technically and commercially viable solutions to recycling different plastics.

Right on, Rylands.

So folks, if you dream of a greener South Africa, here’s your opportunity to do your bit to get rid of evil plastics once and for all.

Namaste to you.

[source:businesstech]