Eco-friendly shopping bags

Manufacturing packaging from partially recycled plastic requires less energy than would be used to produce bags made entirely from virgin material. Above all using recycled materials will see less waste go to landfill.

Waste management is a big challenge globally. In Cape Town alone, the city's Environmental Resource Management Department says that the amount of waste generated by the city annually is increasing at a rate that is higher than the growth of its population each year.

"Environmentally friendly shopping bags are not new to Woolworths. The shopping bags used for clothing and general merchandise in Woolworths KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape stores contain 35% recycled material which is also harvested from post industrial waste. Expect to see ranges of these innovative bags rolled out to other regions shortly. We continue to encourage our customers to use reusable shopping bags," says Dorothy McLaren, Head of Corporate affairs at Woolworths.

"Even though we've introduced a more environmentally sensitive bag to our food departments, we would really prefer our customers to use reusable shopping bags,” continued McLaren. "We have a range to meet differing needs, including the very popular coloured cloth bags and the plastic art bags, featuring the work of local South African artists. We've also recently added a jute bag, made from sustainable fibres, which clearly indicates our vision, sporting the phrase – saving the world one bag at a time".