Effective Sept. 22, Wegmans customers will be able to buy paper bags for 5 cents or have their grocery order loaded into reusable bags.

But the era of single-use plastic grocery bags is coming to an end at the company's 18 Pennsylvania locations.

The Rochester, New York-based grocer said this move marks the completion of the company's planned effort to eliminate single-use plastic grocery bags companywide by the end of the year.

Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle, which has numerous stores in Erie and Crawford counties, stopped providing single-use plastic bags on April 22.

Giant Eagle customers can either bring their own bags or purchase paper bags.

Grocery shopping:Giant Eagle to stop providing single-use plastic bags at its Erie County supermarkets

Wegmans store locations

The change at Wegmans will affect customers at the following stores:

• 3900 Tilghman St., Allentown

• 5000 Wegmans Drive, Bethlehem

• 600 Commerce Drive, Collegeville

• 1056 East Lancaster Ave., Downingtown

• 3791 Easton-Nazareth Highway, Easton

• 6143 Peach St., Erie

• 5028 West Ridge Road, Erie

• 100 Applied Bank Blvd., Glen Mills

• 1 Village Drive, King Of Prussia

• 2000 Crossings Blvd., Lancaster

• 50 Foundry Way, Malvern

• 6416 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg

• 500 Montgomery Mall, North Wales

• 1315 Scranton Carbondale Hwy., Scranton

• 345 Colonnade Blvd., State College

• 1405 Main St., Warrington

• 220 Highland Park Blvd., Wilkes-Barre Township

• 201 William St., Williamsport

Sustainability effort

“Completing our transition out of single-use plastic bags across the company is a big celebration as we continue to expand our sustainability efforts and focus on doing what’s right for the environment,” said Jason Wadsworth, the family-owned grocery chain's category merchant for packaging, energy, and sustainability.

More:We compared prices at Erie-area grocery stores to measure inflation's impact on your wallet

“We started on this journey in 2019 when we set out to eliminate plastic bags in our New York State stores ahead of the state plastic bag ban," he said. "A lot has happened over the last three years, but that early success in New York showed us the impact we could make and drove us to continue on our journey to be plastic bag free by the end of 2022.”

Wegmans, which plans to donate the money from selling paper bags to the local United Way in each area, said in a statement that it is trying to provide an incentive to shift customers to reusable bags, which it calls the "best option to solve the environmental challenge of single-use grocery bags."

There is evidence that effort is working elsewhere.

According to Wegmans, in stores where the store has eliminated plastic bags, paper bags are used for 20-25% of all sales. The remaining 75-80% use reusable bags or no bags at all.

Wegmans, which has 107 stores in seven states, said it has committed to reducing its in-store plastic packaging made from fossil fuels, along with other single-use plastics, by 10 million pounds by 2024.

Jim Martin can be reached at jmartin@timesnews.com

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Wegmans to eliminate single-use plastic bags in Erie and rest of PA