Macy's Makes Some Green Moves Just in Time for Earth Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 21st 2008 at 8:07AM

Next up in the oh-look-we-are-green-too category comes Macy's which has announced that they will start using shopping bags made in part with recycled paper at its Macy's stores and biodegradable packaging for online shipments. The shopping bags will be made from paper that uses 30% recycled material and will be 100% recyclable. The previous Macy's bags were laminated and not recyclable, which is a big deal when you consider. Macy's uses more than 43 million handled shopping bags each year. Like other stores, Macy's will sell their own branded totes. The reusable cotton tote bags for $3.95, with $1 going to the National Park Foundation. On April 26, the first 100 to 150 customers at every Macy's store will receive a free reusable tote bag.

Better news is that macys.com and bloomingdales.com, are ditching those annoying synthetic packing peanuts in favor of biodegradable packing materials made from raw ingredients such as potato starch. In another green move, company plans to put solar panals on more than 30 of their stores, many in California. Other retailers making similar moves recently include eLuxury, which has stopped printing paper catalogs and Nordstrom which has introduced environmentally-friendly packing materials.

Tags: expire-images2009-4-20, green, macys, recycling