One Bag Habit is a joint initiative from H&M, KappAhl and Lindex where the members will charge for all plastic bags in store from June 1. All surplus from the sales of the bags will go to causes that drive sustainable development within social or environmentally related projects and each company chooses where the surplus will be donated. The initiative is a response to a coming EU directive to reduce the consumption of plastic bags.
Our ambition with the One Bag Habit initiative is to facilitate and speed up the transition to a more sustainable consumption of shopping bags. We want to raise awareness about the bags’ negative environmental impact and we invite all retailers to join the initiative, says the three fashion chains in a joint statement.
About One Bag Habit: H&M, KappAhl and Lindex are initiators, and more retail companies are expected to join onwards. When participating in One Bag Habit, the members undertake to charge for all consumer bags as well as communicate about bags’ negative environmental impact and how consumer bags can be used in a more sustainable way. The companies also commit to offering recyclable consumer bags made from more sustainable materials. The surplus of the sales of the bags will go to different causes that drive sustainable development. Each member chooses to what cause and reports about the result yearly, on their home page and/or in their annual report. Initially the One Bag Habit will be launched in Sweden. The fashion chains’ joint ambition is to expand the initiative to their other markets.
About bags: Humanity has an important sustainability challenge in reducing the consumption of all kind of bags. Both plastic and paper bags have a negative impact on the climate. Even when the bags are made of renewable materials they are still very energy consumption in producing transporting and recycle. It takes 400 years for nature to break down a plastic bag. In the meantime it is distributed into small pieces and becomes a harmful ingredient in the food chain for both animals and humans. And bags made from cotton are also resource intensive, especially in the cultivation phase. It needs to be used 130-400 times to get down to the same level of environmental impact that is caused by a plastic bag. Simply, less bags need to be taken into use and the used ones needs to be used several times. The best option is to bring a bag from home instead of buying a new one when shopping. And make it into a more sustainable shopping routine that saves both the resources of the earth and our own economy. That’s what the One Bag Habit should contribute with.
More information about One Bag Habit can be found on www.one-bag-habit.se
For more information contact:
Kristina Hermansson, Corporate Communications Manager
E-mail: press@lindex.com
Phone: +46 (0)31 739 50 60