It’s hard to deny the convenience of having your retail purchases bagged and ready to take home. But as single-use plastic retail bags continue to create a growing environmental issue, a group of retailers is teaming up to find better solutions. With our long history of offering planet-friendly products and services, Target is excited to join in.
Today, we’re proud to announce our membership in the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, a groundbreaking new partnership with Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy (an innovation center for collaboration and research to advance circularity) alongside other industry leaders, including founding partners CVS Health and Walmart, in addition to Walgreens and Kroger.
The new group has one goal, and it’s big: to identify, pilot and implement innovative alternative designs for the single-use retail bag. We’ll be looking for solutions that still deliver the convenience consumers love, but with much less impact on the environment. Consortium members will collectively invest more than $15 million to fund the multiyear effort.
“We believe in serving our guests and communities with actions that reduce our footprint on the planet," says Amanda Nusz, vice president of corporate responsibility, Target. “We’re proud to partner with Closed Loop Partners and other leading retailers to take on a challenge facing the entire industry, and we welcome others to join us in this collective effort as we aim to design a better solution.”
Calling all innovators: Here’s your chance to help make a difference
Making real, measurable progress will require collaboration and creative ideas from all corners of the globe. With that in mind, the Consortium is kicking off this worldwide search for designs with a challenge that’s open to every creative brain.
Beginning in August, the Consortium will invite all innovators to submit their designs for a new retail bag that’s easy to use and environmentally friendly. The winning ideas will then go through testing and potential piloting. Who knows—maybe your design will be one of the solutions we’re looking for.
Watch www.beyondthebaginitiative.com for more info about the design challenge and how to submit. Until then? Ready … set … brainstorm!
Learn more about how the Target team puts the needs of people, communities and the planet at the heart of how we work today to help build a better tomorrow.
