ALDI Aims for 100% Recyclable or Compostable Packaging by 2025
Clearly, grocery stores are a big source of plastic waste. 500 billion plastic bags are used globally every year (that’s over a million bags per minute), and we’ve used more plastic bags in the last decade than in the entire previous century. And that's before you even take into account all the plastic packaging that now surrounds even fresh fruit and vegetables.
Wastefulness has (unfortunately) become the norm in the packaging industry, which accounts for 40 percent of plastic usage. We don’t have to tell you how detrimental that is to the environment—especially since 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year.
But thankfully, grocery stores are trying to make food packaging more sustainable in an effort to reduce waste. Trader Joe’s first announced their plans to dial back on plastic usage, and now ALDI is following suit.
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ALDI is actually ahead of the game, given that they don’t offer single-use plastic grocery bags. But now they’re taking their sustainability efforts even further. Jason Hart, CEO of ALDI U.S., said in a press release, “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.”
Here are the sustainability goals ALDI plans to achieve in the near future:
By 2025, packaging material of all ALDI-exclusive products to be reduced by at least 15%
By 2020, 100% of ALDI-exclusive consumable packaging to include How2Recycle label
By 2020, implement an initiative to make private-label product packaging easier for customers to reuse
Guide continuous improvement of product packaging by internal expertise and external evaluations.
More than 90 percent of ALDI’s products are private-label, so they’re able to influence how the products are sourced and produced. The retailer plans to work with its suppliers to reach its sustainability goals, and we couldn’t be more excited to see this change.
