Mitre 10 to remove single-use plastic bags from its stores

Mitre 10 will remove single-use plastic bags from all of its 128 stores from July 1. Photo / File

Mitre 10 shoppers will soon have to bring their own bags after the company announced they will cease using single-use plastic bags and boot liners.

From July 1, all 128 Mitre 10, Mitre 10 MEGA and Hammer Hardware stores across the country will no longer have either options available instore.

Jules Lloyd-Jones, Mitre 10 general manager marketing, said the retailer takes its duty to be socially and environmentally responsible seriously.

"As the country's biggest home improvement retailer, we take our duty to be socially responsible seriously and always strive to do the right thing by our customers, communities and the environment."

"It's hard to beat the passion of our local owner-operators when it comes to their communities and they were right behind making this move and doing it as soon as we could," Lloyd-Jones said.

Lloyd-Jones said the decision was an easy one to make and received unanimous support from the co-operative's owner-operators.

She did however acknowledge that shopping without plastic bags was going to take time for customers to get used to.

"Plastic bags have become so ingrained into our way of shopping that it's quite a significant mind-shift to get into the routine of bringing your own bag.

"While there are many shoppers who have already established the routine, and we've noticed that number increasing, we want to make the change as smooth as possible for those not there yet.

"Providing customers with a positive experience is right at the top of our agenda and so we'll be talking a lot about the move ahead over the next few weeks both in store and publicly so that come 1 July there are no surprises for our customers," Lloyd-Jones said.

Yesterday, Mico Plumbing and Bathrooms announced a similar move to remove plastic bag usage from all its 65 branches.