ALDI Australia says it’s on its way to achieve its goal of reducing plastic packaging across its own-label range by a quarter by 2025.
When ALDI first made its ambitious commitment in 2019, the business evaluated the total amount of packaging across all its products.
Since then, the supermarket has been working closely with producers and manufacturers to remove plastics from its range including sleeves, trays and labels, or replace them with sustainable alternatives to reduce the overall plastic quantity across every one of its products.
ALDI says it achieved a reduction of plastic packaging of 4% in the first year of its initiative, which is claimed to have collectively avoided almost 2000 tonnes of plastics being introduced to the market. The retailer adds that it has been particularly focusing on removing plastics across its fresh produce, with plastic trays and wraps reduced by 10%.
ALDI Australia Director Corporate Responsibility Daniel Barker says the organisation recognises its responsibility to minimise the use of plastics.
“Australian grocery buyers are informed and want to be able to make conscious purchasing decisions,” he says.
“Shoppers may have noticed changes such as our Yoconut dairy free dessert tubs transitioning from plastic to paperboard packaging and the removal of plastic trays from some packaged fresh fruit like apples and pears.
“These may seem like small changes, but they all add up to make a big difference. The next few years will see us continue to remove plastics from our range and by 2025 all remaining packaging will be either recyclable, reusable or compostable.”