Kroger stores to ditch plastic bags

By 2025, Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the United States, will no longer offer plastic bags at any of its 2,779 stores.

The company made the announcement on Thursday, saying the plastic bag ban is something customers have asked for. Kroger owns two dozen different grocery chains across 35 states and the District of Columbia, serves nearly nine million people a day, and orders roughly six billion plastic bags every year, the company said.

Kroger has already started phasing out plastic bags at its QFC stores in the Seattle area, and expects to be free of all plastic bags there by 2019, The Associated Press reports. Other companies are also embracing sustainability, with Starbucks, McDonald's, and Disney recently announcing they are getting rid of plastic straws and Ikea saying by 2020, it will no longer sell single-use plastic products.

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