London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Oct 04, 2025

Walmart will stop providing single-use plastic and paper bags in New York and Colorado in January, accelerating its sustainability push – but creating a new task for customers

Walmart will stop providing single-use plastic and paper bags in New York and Colorado in January, accelerating its sustainability push – but creating a new task for customers

New York, Colorado will join New Jersey, Maine, and Vermont as states where Walmart has eliminated single-use bags as part of a sustainability effort.

If you're a Walmart shopper in Colorado or New York, you better be ready to bring your own bag to the retailer — or be ready to spend a little extra. 

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant will stop offering single-use bags, both plastic and paper, in its New York and Colorado stores in January 2023, a Walmart spokesperson confirmed with Insider. The policy will go into effect on New Year's Day in Colorado and on Jan. 18 in New York.

Instead, customers in those two states will either have to bring their own bags to the retailer, or they will have the option to purchase some at the store. Reusable bags range from 74 cents to $3.98 depending on size and functionality, per a graphic from Walmart.

New York and Colorado will join three other states — New Jersey, Maine, and Vermont — where Walmart has eliminated single-use bags as part of a greater sustainability effort.

"Eliminating single-use bags is part of our commitment to achieve zero waste across our operations and ultimately shift gradually toward a circular economy built on advancing reuse, refill and recycling habits," Walmart spokeswoman Lauren Willis told Insider.


Walmart will sell reusable bags in states where it has banned single-use bags. The prices for these bags range from 74 cents to $3.98.

Walmart has been pushing to be more sustainable with its bags since at least 2020. 

In the summer of that year, Walmart announced in a blog post that it was joining forces with Target and CVS in the "Beyond the Bag" initiative, which is being spearheaded by sustainability focused investment firm Closed Loop Partners. The goal of the initiative is to "identify, test and implement innovative new design solutions that serve the function of today's single-use plastic retail bag, according to the initiative's website.

"While the convenience of the plastic retail bag cannot be disputed, the average working life of one of these bags is only 12 minutes," then-Walmart Director of Sustainability Anna Vinogradova wrote in the blog post. "It's estimated that 100 billion plastic bags are being used annually in the U.S. alone, and less than 10 percent of them are recycled."

In the states in which Walmart has or will be eliminating single-use bags, legislatures have already passed laws that ban single-use plastic bags and require retailers to charge a fee for, or outright ban, single-use paper bags.

Walmart has set a goal "to achieve zero waste" in its own operations in the US and Canada by 2025. It's unclear if that includes eliminating single-use plastic bags at all stores. A Walmart spokesperson did not respond to questions on that goal and if Walmart would ban single-use bags in any other states in 2023.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×