As part of its annual Earth Day celebration, H-E-B gave away 274,000 reusable bags to customers across Texas.
Beginning at 8 a.m. April 22, shoppers who visited any H-E-B, Central Market, Joe V’s Smart Shop and Mi Tienda in Texas were eligible to receive a bag.
Since 2008, H-E-B has given out more than 3.2 million reusable bags in celebration of Earth Day.
The Earth Day tote highlights H-E-B’s “Our Texas, Our Future” commitment, through which the company aims to increase awareness and education around sustainability efforts that help preserve land, water and air in the Lone Star State.
H-E-B reduces its impact on the environment through waste diversion efforts, along with several other programs throughout the year. The company has multiple ventures aimed at supporting clean-up opportunities and waste reduction efforts.
Through the “Our Texas, Our Future” commitment, the retailer is sponsoring the Trash Free Gulf campaign, which gives Texans an opportunity to participate in more than 40 litter cleanups in every major watershed and along the coastline to work toward a Trash Free Gulf.
During April and May, Texans can find opportunities and volunteer for a cleanup event by visiting trashfreegulf.com.
School Plastic Bag Challenge
From March 4-April 4, students across Texas collected thousands of pounds of plastic bags as part of H-E-B’s Annual School Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge.
This year, 792 schools collected more than 6.7 million plastic bags for the challenge, surpassing the previous record of 5 million bags collected in 2024.
The Early Childhood Center in Eagle Pass collected the most plastic bags in the state this year, with a total of more than 406,000, far outweighing the 97,000 bags it collected in 2024.
Frances Zapata, the school’s P.E. teacher, said she showed the pre-K and kindergarten students videos about recycling and motivated them with pizza parties, stickers, prizes and early recess.
Each day, the students brought in bags that the teachers would count by hand, keeping a running tally to make sure they met their goal, which was 100,000 bags.
“Some kids would walk through their neighborhoods with wagons, knocking on doors to ask for bags or asking their neighbors for bags as they unloaded groceries from their cars,” said Zapata, who has taught at the school for 10 years.
“They were all excited to do this, and they see the good in it. They were jumping for joy and very excited to see their work pay off and that they had a hand in helping clean up our community.”
H-E-B customers also can support sustainability efforts through its annual donation campaign, which runs through May 6 and benefits H-E-B Trees for Texans, an effort in partnership with Texan by Nature to plant native trees at schools and throughout communities.
Since 2012, H-E-B has contributed more than $20 million to more than 500 environmental organizations in land and water conservation, habitat and coastal preservation and community cleanups.
[RELATED: H-E-B Offers $140K In Grants To Plant Trees Across TX]