Harrods to ditch plastic bags

Luxury London department store Harrods is replacing all its plastic carrier bags with fully recyclable paper bags from early next month.

The new sustainable sourced paper carrier bags will be 100 percent recyclable and made from 40 percent recycled materials, explained Harrods, and will display the FSC label showing that they use paper that has been responsibly sourced.

The department store is also looking to reduce the number of bags distributed to customers by cutting its consumption of carrier bags by 50 percent from pre-pandemic levels. This will include setting targets for staff to hand out fewer bags, as well as the complete removal of all carrier bags from the Harrods food hall and signature departments later this year. Instead, staff will invite customers to purchase a jute reusable bag.

The overhaul of Harrods carrier bags is a step in Harrods wider plastic reduction plan, which includes its recent step to remove all plastic packaging from its outbound distribution, meaning Harrods customers now have items delivered in entirely plastic-free packaging.

Harrods iconic green plastic carrier bag gets a sustainable makeover

Harrods has also pledged to remove 100 percent of single-use virgin plastic packaging from across the business to ensure all of its packaging is 100 percent reusable or recyclable and contains a minimum of 40 – 100 percent recycled content.

Michael Ward, managing director of Harrods, said in a statement: “Updating our iconic carrier bag is long overdue. But switching from one material to another is meaningless if you are not making a drastic reduction in waste, particularly for a business with over 4 million bags leaving the shop floor every year.

“We are determined to overhaul the way bags are handed out across the store and are challenging customers to join us in reducing waste by using as few bags as possible. As proud as we are to see customers leaving our store with the iconic Harrods green bag, going forward we want to see as few of them as possible.”