ALDI To Reduce Plastic Packaging By 2025
by Rudy Sanchez on 04/23/2019 | 2 Minute Read
Grocery chain ALDI, with 1,800 stores in 35 states in the US, has committed to 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025. In addition to this commitment, ALDI promises to reduce the packaging material in all ALDI-exclusive products by at least 15%, and 100% of ALDI-exclusive packaging will include the How2Recycle label, making their private-label packaging easier to dispose of by 2020.
“ALDI has never offered single-use plastic shopping bags. And while we’re pleased that we’ve helped keep billions of plastic grocery bags out of landfills and oceans, we want to continue to do more,” said Jason Hart, CEO of ALDI US in a press release. “The commitments we’re making to reduce plastic packaging waste are an investment in our collective future that we are proud to make.”
The company estimates that by never having offered single-use plastic bags in their four-decade history, they’ve kept 15 billion of these bags from oceans and landfills. Their current sustainability practices also include recycling 250,000 tons of material last year and avoiding over 8 million gallons of gasoline’s worth of greenhouse gases.
The German-based grocer is in some ways better positioned to implement ambitious sustainability goals than traditional supermarkets because they have a history of operating as a no-frills cost leader. The customer base expects a pared-down experience, and the cost savings translate into lower prices. The supermarket chain relies more on store exclusives and private label products rather than national brands, so they have the ability to exert more influence over the packaging.
They join another grocery chain in Trader Joe’s by announcing a series of ambitious sustainability goals, as they also rely on private label and exclusively produced products. As a New Year’s resolution, Trader Joe’s pledged changes to the materials used in their packaging, replacing plastic trays with compostable ones, selling loose produce or packaging them in compostable bags, ultimately promising to remove 1 million pounds of plastic from stores in 2019.