Supermarket giant Aldi has announced plans to scrap single-use bags for loose fruit and veg from all of its stores by the end of the year.
Britain’s fifth largest supermarket – which runs almost 900 stores across the UK – says the move will save more than 100 tonnes of plastic a year.
Shoppers will instead be encouraged to bring their own containers to the store, or spend 25p on a new reusable drawstring bag, which is made from recycled bottles.
The German-owned company is one of the first UK supermarkets to commit to a ban on single-use produce bags. The move follows a successful trial in 100 of its stores across the Midlands earlier this year.
“Aldi is committed to reducing plastic waste, and evolving our approach to the sale and distribution of our bags is a critical part of that,” said Chris McKenry, plastics and packaging director at Aldi UK & Ireland.
“We’ve already made good headway with removing and replacing avoidable plastics across our product range, but now it is time to step things up when it comes to bags and providing our customers with sustainable alternatives.”
In July, Aldi announced an ambitious new commitment to halve the volume of plastic packaging it uses – equating to 74,000 tonnes – by 2025.
The supermarket has been carbon neutral since January 2019 and rolled out compostable carrier bags to all its UK stores in January 2020, after they proved more popular than paper bags in a customer trial.
The news comes as leading UK manufacturer Polybags launched a new range of compostable carrier bags to further extend its market-leading range of eco-friendly packaging.
The company says the new-look classic carrier bag – which can be disposed of in industrial or home composting and complies with standard EN13432 – offers a dual-purpose, serving as a shopping bag and then as a food waste bag.
Aldi claims to be on track to having all own-label products as recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022, with branded products sold by the retailer to follow suit by 2025.
Image courtesy of Aldi.
