Coles and Woolworths respond to Aldi’s significant plastic move

1. Coles and Woolworths respond to Aldi’s significant plastic move. Coles and Woolworths have responded to in-store plastic reductions being implemented across Europe and by competitor Aldi. The answer comes after France’s environment ministry declared a ban on plastic wrapping for practically all fruits and vegetables beginning in January 2022. Coles told Yahoo News Australia about their aim to eliminate plastic packaging for fruits and vegetables and that they are always exploring alternate packaging choices.” Packing, especially plastic packaging, serves an important role in safeguarding items during transportation, prolonging product life, keeping food safe, and decreasing food waste,” a Coles representative stated.

2. Coles has successfully adopted various waste-reduction strategies for fresh vegetables. “We will continue to seek ideas for packaging that is not only suitable for the purpose, but also keeps fruit fresh for customers, preserves it, and keeps it safe,” they added. Coles has successfully implemented various waste-reduction measures for fresh fruit, including collaborating with suppliers to switch from plastic to paper liners in select loose avocado boxes. The new paper liners will eliminate almost four million non-recyclable plastic trays from Coles’ supply chain each year. In addition, for sweet pointed capsicums, baby corn, and parsnips, the retailer is replacing black trays with clear plastic trays, and transitioning from a black to a white plastic lid on their garlic paste – ensuring that more than 1.2 million pieces, or 13 tonnes, can now be recycled in kerbside collection annually.

3. Coles was just named Australia’s top grocery store in terms of sustainability. Coles is also working with its suppliers to minimize the weight of plastic wrap. This has resulted in a decrease of roughly 16 tonnes of plastic per year with Fresh Select, one of Coles’ pre-packaged lettuce suppliers. These are some of Coles’ most recent efforts. The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) just named Coles the number one grocery store in Australia for sustainability, beating rival competitors Woolworths and Aldi. Woolworths packaging from its products. will eliminate 800 tonnes of plastic

4. Woolworths has been working hard to eliminate plastic packaging as part of its Sustainability Plan 2025, which seeks to “build a better tomorrow” by focusing on three pillars: people, planet, and goods. According to a Woolworths spokesman, while the bulk of their fruit and vegetables are sold loose, the store is working hard to eliminate plastic wrapping throughout their whole range. “In the previous four years, we’ve removed more than 800 tonnes of plastic packaging from our fruits and vegetables,” the representative stated. Woolworths has eradicated more than 800 tonnes of plastic wrapping from their fresh products over the previous four years. “We’ve made modifications to a variety of things, such as changing plastic trays for pulp and cardboard and placing paper tags on veggies,” they added.

5. Woolworths has removed nearly 9,000 tonnes of plastic from its own brand and fresh product range, including fruit, milk bottles, meat trays, and bakery goods, since 2018. Some fresh products in the Woolworths line, however, are still packaged to improve shelf life and avoid food waste. A cucumber covered in plastic, for example, lasts three times longer than one that isn’t. “We’ll keep working with our suppliers to reduce the quantity of plastic used in packaging for a brighter tomorrow,” the representative stated. Customers should expect to see more environmentally friendly packaging as Woolworths works toward its 2025 sustainability objective, which includes making 100% of Own Brand packaging recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2023. Other adjustments would include using half as much new packaging by 2024 and using 60% recycled material in all packaging by 2025. How will Aldi Australia react to France’s ban on plastic packaging? Meanwhile, Aldi just stated that it had reduced over 2,000 tonnes of plastic packaging from its stores in the previous year. Daniel Baker, Aldi Australia’s Director of Corporate Responsibility, told Yahoo News Australia that Aldi achieved a 10% decrease in plastics throughout their fresh produce assortment in only one year.

6. “Removing plastics across our fresh produce offering is a critical objective, and in 2020 we achieved a 10% decrease in this area,” Mr Baker added. “This was accomplished through a variety of packaging improvements, including the elimination of plastic trays from some packaged fresh fruit such as apples, pears, nectarines, and peaches along the eastern seaboard and in South Africa,” he explained. Mr. Baker added that Aldi Australia is testing home compostable strawberry punnets and is looking into methods to expand this packaging across more of their product line. “Over the next five years, we will continue to phase out plastics or replace them with sustainable alternatives, and by 2025, all remaining packaging will be recyclable, reusable, or compostable.”