Living Green

The Austin, Texas-based natural foods chain announced Tuesday that it plans to eliminate the bags from its 270 stores within three months, by Earth Day. Stores will use up existing supplies, but they won't order any more.

Instead, the chain will ask customers to bring reusable shopping bags. It is giving away 50,000 of them today at its checkouts.

Whole Foods, which operates five Whole Foods stores and two Harry's Farmers Markets in metro Atlanta, will eliminate plastic grocery bags at all of its stores in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The chain estimates it will keep 100 million plastic bags out of circulation between Earth Day (April 22) and the end of the year by banning their use.

The move will be Whole Foods' "gift to the planet" for Earth Day, co-president and chief operating officer A.C. Gallo said in a prepared statement.

"More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides," Gallo said.

Whole Foods started testing the idea last year, in San Francisco, Austin and Toronto. San Francisco banned large supermarkets from using petroleum-plastic bags last spring, instead directing them to hand out recyclable paper bags, corn-based plastic that breaks down easily or reusable cloth bags.

Whole Foods has been encouraging customers to reuse shopping bags by selling a sturdy bag made from recycled plastic bottles for 99 cents. Customers get 10 cents off their bills each time they use the bag. The company plans to increase supplies of reusable bags before it gets rid of the disposable plastic bags.

The company will continue to offer paper bags at checkout. The full-size paper bags are made from recycled material, said Kim Tate, customer service coordinator for Whole Foods' South region, which includes Atlanta. Smaller paper bags will be shifted to all recycled material later this year, Tate said.

For now, Whole Foods will continue to use plastic bags in its seafood and produce departments. The company is looking for alternatives to those products.