Acocording to a report this week by Two Sides, Chicago, Ill. USA, to coincide with Earth Day this past Friday, the sportswear giant Adidas announced it is removing plastic shopping bags from thousands of the company’s global retail stores, a move that will eliminate usage of about 70 million bags per year.​

The switch to paper bags will be implemented immediately, with Russia and Kazakhstan following in June 2016.

Additionally, during the past year, the Adidas Group has worked closely with its partners, resulting in the vast majority of its franchisees committing to paper bags by the end of June.

"Plastic bags are always a problem because they aren’t a renewable resource. They are trash," James Carnes, Adidas VP of global brand strategy, told Fortune (New York City, N.Y.). "Good plastics have the potential to be reused but plastic bags are bad plastics."

The transition to paper bags means every year the adidas Group will eliminate approximately 70 million plastic shopping bags across more than 14,000 retail stores globally. This translates to 3 million plastic shopping bags in the U.S. and more than 2 million plastic bags in Germany.