Products
Eliminating Single-Use Plastics
Eliminating Single-Use Plastics

The Need to Reduce

Five trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year and more than 99% are never recycled.

As a trusted retailer and partner in our communities, we have an obligation to operate in a sustainable way that benefits everyone. Giant Eagle has established an aggressive goal to eliminate single-use plastics from our operations by 2025. By reducing the use of plastic bags at checkout and designing more eco-friendly packaging we’re able to divert significant waste from our landfills.

Together, we have the potential to divert up to 12.4 million pounds of plastic annually:

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Reducing Plastic Bags at Checkout

To achieve our goal of removing single-use plastics from our operations, we’re starting to eliminate single-use plastic bags from our registers. So far, we have successfully removed plastic bags from all GetGo locations, as well as our supermarkets in:

  • Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH
  • Erie, PA
  • Carmel, IN
  • Columbus, OH
  • City of Pittsburgh, PA

As we expand this elimination across our enterprise, *we have the potential to prevent 6.5 million pounds of plastic bags annually from ever reaching landfills.


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Our Pittsburgh Bag Fee Charitable Pass-Through Program

From October 14, 2023 through December 31, 2024, Giant Eagle is passing 100 percent of paper bag fees paid by our Guests per the City of Pittsburgh’s single-use plastic bag legislation through to help make our neighborhoods cleaner and greener by supporting a variety of environmentally friendly efforts across the city:

  • 50 percent of all paper bag fee payments made by Guests will be passed through to the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy to support its mission to improve the quality of life for the people of Pittsburgh by restoring the park system to excellence in partnership with government and community.
  • 50 percent of all bag fee payments made by Guests will be split evenly and passed through to the following four organizations:
    • Allegheny Cleanways to support its mission to engage and empower people to eliminate illegal dumping and littering in Allegheny County;
    • Riverlife to support its mission to create, activate and celebrate Pittsburgh’s riverfronts, connecting people through exceptional places and experiences;
    • Grow Pittsburgh to support its mission to teach people how to grow food and promote the benefits gardens bring to our neighborhoods;
    • Tree Pittsburgh to support its mission to strengthen and build community viability by restoring and protecting the urban forest through tree planting and care, education, advocacy, and land conservation.



We’re proud to partner with Minkah Fitzpatrick in our efforts to create a more sustainable future.


Innovative Giant Eagle Brand Packaging

In addition to reducing plastic bag usage, we are actively working to reduce the amount of single-use plastic that our products come packaged in. Some ways we have accomplished this so far include:

  • An ongoing partnership with How2Recycle, who helped us add instructions for Guests to best dispose of packaging and encourage the best recycling practices.
  • Transitioning our Own Brand fresh chicken from a foam tray to a fully recyclable PET 1 tray, representing 1 million pounds of plastic that will be diverted from landfills annually.
  • Adding resealable film tops to our lettuce boxes, eliminating more than 30% of the total weight of the packaging—that’s over 100,000 pounds less plastic used!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Each year, Americans use 100 billion single-use plastic bags. It takes all of us to address this national – and global – issue. As a retailer committed to the communities we serve, Giant Eagle is doing its part to reduce the global impact of single-use plastic bags and promote the use of environmentally- friendly reusable bags. In December 2021, we proudly relaunched efforts to remove single-use plastic bags from registers within Giant Eagle supermarket, Market Districts and GetGo locations. GetGo has paved the way, already effectively eliminating plastic bags from all locations. GetGo’s efforts will divert 450,000 pounds or over 27 million plastic bags from landfills annually. In April 2022, Giant Eagle removed plastic bags from our Giant Eagle and Market District locations in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH and Erie, PA. Giant Eagle has also removed plastic bags from our Giant Eagle and Market District locations in Columbus OH, and Carmel, Indiana. As of October 2023, in support of the City of Pittsburgh legislation, plastic bags have been eliminated at the register in all City of Pittsburgh stores. As we continue to expand plastic bag elimination across our markets, we have the potential to prevent 6.5 million pounds of plastic bags from ever reaching landfills.

While we know paper bags are not the answer, we will have paper bags available to Guests at the register. We will not charge a fee for paper bags in most markets, but the City of Pittsburgh requires us to charge 10 cents per paper bag for all stores within the city limits. Per the City’s legislation, Pittsburgh customers paying with forms of government funded food purchase assistance (SNAP, WIC etc.) will be exempt from the paper bag fee.

All supermarkets in the City of Pittsburgh, PA, Cuyahoga County, Ohio and in and around Erie, Pennsylvania, Columbus, Ohio and Carmel, Indiana. Additionally, all GetGo stores have removed single-use plastic bags from all locations. As we move forward, we plan to roll this effort out to other markets.See full list of stores here.

The focus is currently on single-use plastic bags at the checkout lanes, in-store cafes, pharmacy checkout, curbside and delivery of participating Giant Eagle and Market District locations. Guests will continue to find plastic bags at the meat, seafood, and deli departments and other areas of the store.

Giant Eagle will make paper bags available for purchase in accordance with the City of Pittsburgh’s legislation at a cost of 10 cents per paper bag. Importantly, per the City’s legislation, Pittsburgh customers paying with forms of government funded food purchase assistance (SNAP, WIC, etc.) will be exempt from the paper bag fee.

From October 14, 2023 through December 31, 2024, Giant Eagle is passing 100 percent of paper bag fees paid by our Guests per the City of Pittsburgh’s single-use plastic bag legislation through to help make our neighborhoods cleaner and greener by supporting a variety of environmentally friendly efforts across the city.

    The following locations are participating:

    • Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle

    • Shadyside Market District

    • South Side Giant Eagle

    • Greenfield Giant Eagle

    • Brighton Heights Giant Eagle

    • Waterworks Market District

    • Parkway Center Giant Eagle

    • Cedar Avenue Giant Eagle

    • South Side Works GetGo

    • Squirrel Hill GetGo

    • Baum Boulevard GetGo

    • Lawrenceville GetGo

    • South Side Crossroads GetGo

    • O'Hara Township GetGo