Japanese government will ban free plastic shopping bags at stores from July 2020. It will be mandatory by law for retail stores such as supermarkets and convenience stores to charge for the use of plastic shopping bags. We conducted a survey on the use of plastic bags at 870 stores of 39 Co-ops[1] for a period of one year from April 2018 to March 2019. From the survey, we analyze the actual situation of plastic bag reduction by co-ops nationwide in FY2018.

The rate of reduction of plastic shopping bags for co-ops nationwide is 82%. A total of 390 million plastic shopping bags have been reduced. [2]

The following table shows the plastic shopping bag reduction initiatives implemented by co-ops nationwide. 

The rate of reduction at stores that use the cash register settlement initiative was the highest compared to the other methods except initiative not using bags.

In addition, at stores that take the cash register settlement initiative, the higher the price of a plastic shopping bag, the higher the reduction rate.

We will take further measures to reduce plastic shopping bags while taking into account the ban on free plastic shopping bags that will begin in July 2020, and will also promote to introduce plant-based and recycled plastics materials for shopping bags.