Kroger Co., with more than 2,600 stores in 34 states and sales nearing $100 billion, saw plastic bag recycling increase by 10 percent last year.
The grocery store chain, in its new sustainability report, indicates that 35 million pounds of plastic bags were recycled from its stores and distribution centers.
While that's a double-digit increase year-over-year, Kroger also has seen plastic bag recycling increase by 33 percent since 2011, the Cincinnati-based company reported.
“Plastic bags are collected and recycled into products such as new recycled plastic bags, landscape materials and plastic composite lumber,” the company said in the sustainability report.
Consumers are encouraged to recycle their used plastic bags through “Bag2Bag” collection containers located in stores, Kroger said.
The sustainability report, including the information about plastics, is at http://sustainability.kroger.com/.