Aldi to halve plastic packaging use in the UK by 2025

The new commitment will see 2.2 billion pieces of plastic removed from the supermarket’s product lines over the next five years, most of which will be single-use. This is equivalent to 74,000 tonnes in weight. Plastic wrapping on toilet rolls, for example, will be replaced with a paper alternative, and double lids will be removed from cream and yoghurts.

Aldi UK will also continue its phase-out of plastic trays on steak lines, replacing them with cardboard alternatives. Since launching its updated plastics strategy in 2018, Aldi has removed more than 6,000 tonnes of plastic packaging from products, including flexible sleeves on multipack tins, expanded polystyrene pizza bases and fruit and vegetable multipacks. The new target aims to accelerate this progress and builds on a previous commitment to reduce plastic packaging volumes by 25% by 2023.

Aside from plastics reduction, Aldi’s plastics strategy binds the supermarket to ensure that all its own-brand plastics packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022 and to halve packaging use by weight – regardless of material – by 2025. On the former, Aldi has replaced more than 3,200 tonnes of unrecyclable material with recyclable alternatives, including black plastic trays for produce.

Source: Edie

Author: Kirsi Seppänen