Walmart pilots reusable bag program in Guelph stores

 Walmart Canada is piloting a reusable bag program in its Guelph, Ontario stores.

The program allows customers to use in-store GOATOTE kiosks to check out clean, reusable bags for a fee ($1 per use or $3 per month for unlimited access), use them for up to one month and return them to be cleaned, sanitized and put back into circulation.  

A year ago Walmart introduced a 10-store pilot to eliminate single-use plastic shopping bags from its stores, with Guelph as one of the pilot locations. 

The national roll-out of that program began in January, and has since prevented nearly 200 million single-use plastic bags from entering circulation. 

“Circular economy solutions, like the GOATOTE option we’re testing in our Guelph stores, focus on eliminating waste and recovering as much value as possible from the goods we use. This means reusing and repairing items while they’re in use and then upcycling or recycling once they’ve reached the end of their lifespan,”  Gaurav Gupta, director, ESG, Walmart Canada, said in a release. “Introducing GOATOTE kiosks into our Guelph stores provides our customers with more choice in how they carry out their purchases when they shop with us and provides us with an opportunity to test this concept for broader use.”