Walmart Canada is giving its shopping bags a second life through a new partnership.

Via the free Walmart Blue Bag Recycling Program powered by the recycler TerraCycle, customers can send in their excess or damaged Walmart reusable blue shopping bags to either clean or donate them for use by charitable partners, like Food Banks Canada. Bags can also be recycled into raw formats that manufacturers could use to make new products, like plastic shipping pallets or outdoor furniture.

“We know that transitioning away from single-use plastic bags two years ago has been a learning curve for Canadians – and we’re proud to be learning alongside them as we make this change together,” says Jennifer Barbazza, senior manager of sustainability for Walmart Canada.

Barbazza says the retailer is proud of its first-of-its-kind national recycling pilot program, which is designed to prevent excess or damaged reusable bags from ending up in landfills.

To help give Canadians a head start on their spring cleaning, Walmart Canada is calling on customers to join its Fresh Start Day of Action on April 22. On this day, the retailer is encouraging Canadians to package up their Walmart-branded blue reusable shopping bags and mail them to TerraCycle to be laundered for donation or recycled through the first-of-its-kind free national recycling pilot program.

In 2022, Walmart Canada became one of the largest grocery retailers to eliminate single-use plastic shopping bags, a move it says prevents more than 680 million plastic bags from entering circulation annually.

In 2017, Walmart announced its ambition to work with suppliers to reduce, avoid or sequester one gigaton or one billion metric tons, of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The company says it’s made investments in energy efficiency, packaging redesign and load optimization to attempt to reach its target.

In December, Walmart Canada also rolled out its first electric semi-trucks in British Columbia in what the retailer says is a “meaningful first step towards its ambition to have 100% of its fleet alternatively powered.”