Aldi, Britain’s fifth largest supermarket, is trialling reusable bags for loose fruit and vegetables as part of its efforts to cut single-use plastics.
From the end of November, more than 250 stores in Scotland, the North of England and the Midlands will offer the bags as a more sustainable alternative to single-use plastic.
The drawstring bags are made from recycled plastic bottles and will be sold for 25p each.
This is the supermarket’s latest step to reduce unnecessary plastic as it works towards reducing plastic packaging by 25% by the end of 2023. If introduced nationally, the initiative will remove the equivalent of 113 tonnes of single-use plastic from circulation each year.
Fritz Walleczek, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility at Aldi, said: “We are committed to cutting the amount of plastic that Aldi and our customers use, particularly excess or single-use plastic like produce bags. It is a long journey, but every little step like this brings us closer to our target of cutting the amount of plastic we use in packaging by 25%. We are hopeful that our customers will embrace these new reusable produce bags whenever they’re buying loose fruit and veg and, together, we will be able to take more than 100 tonnes of plastic a year out of circulation.”
Earlier this year, Aldi trialled paper and compostable carrier bags, scrapped plastic packaging on our four pack toilet rolls and removed plastic wrapping on tinned tuna multipacks. Aldi is on track to have all own-label packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022. Since 2018, it has removed more than 550 tonnes of plastic and replaced almost 3,000 tonnes of unrecyclable material with recyclable alternatives.
