A Superstore outside Victoria, B.C., has decided to stop selling plastic bags to customers at the checkout in order to reduce waste.

Customers can choose to buy reusable shopping bags made of a recycled material that looks and feels like cloth.
(CBC)

"Our goal is to keep a billion bags, a billion single-use plastic bags out of the landfill," said Lori Stene, a spokeswoman for Loblaws Companies Ltd.

Customers can bring their own bags or buy reusable shopping bags that are made of a recycled material. The material looks and feels like cloth but is made from old plastic water bottles, Stene said.

At least one million plastic bags from that one Superstore alone ended up in the landfill every year, Stene said.

Some customers are applauding the move and hoping other retailers will do the same.

"It's a really bold, brave move," said shopper Lana Pophum. "And it's a very small piece of the puzzle as far as environmental crisis goes but it's such a huge step because it means people are acknowledging there's a problem."

"I've reduced the number of bags I brought into the house," another shopper, Anita Culleton, said. "I noticed I was collecting a lot of them. And I was using them for garbage, which is not good, you know, filling up the landfill."