CINCINNATI – Kroger will phase out single-use plastic bags at checkout in its supermarkets within seven years, USA Today reports. The largest U.S. supermarket chain will move to reusable bags by 2025, which will keep 123 million pounds of garbage from landfills.

“The plastic shopping bag’s days are numbered,” said Rodney McMullen, CEO of Kroger, in an editorial for USA Today and the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Our customers have told us it makes no sense to have so much plastic only to be used once before being discarded. And they’re exactly right.”

Currently, the chain offers reusable shopping bags for $1 and up, and will make more of the bags available to customers. Shoppers still will be able to ask for paper bags. Kroger also will reduce usage of plastic bags for meat and produce. Its QFC subsidiary’s 64 stores in the Pacific Northwest will be among the first to get rid of the bags by next year.

“We’re the first major retailer in the U.S. to do this,” said Jessica Adelman, Kroger’s vice president of corporate affairs, which oversees company environmental and sustainability efforts. The chain annually doles out 6 billion plastic bags at checkout, and in 2017, Kroger gathered nearly 38 million pounds of plastic for recycling.

In July, Seattle became the largest U.S. locality to prohibit plastic silverware and straws in restaurants. The California General Assembly also is considering a proposal that would forbid plastic bags and straws across the state.