Aldi, has confirmed that it is trialling the selling of vegetables without any plastic packaging in Scotland.
The trial, which is now underway, focuses on five veg lines: savoy cabbage, red cabbage, white cabbage, pointed cabbage and cauliflower. Customers will now be able to buy these vegetables plastic-free, and over the six-week trial period the supermarket estimates it will save half a tonne of plastic.
If rolled out across the UK, Aldi believe the initiative would remove more than 110 tonnes of plastic wrapping a year from its fresh produce lines. This trial follows the supermarket’s decision to phase out hard-to-recycle black plastic trays on four fresh produce lines, replacing them with clear, recyclable alternatives last year.
Fritz Walleczek, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility at Aldi UK, said: “We’re working hard to reduce plastic, but we also need to ensure that reducing packaging doesn’t lead to unnecessary food waste. We’re hoping the outcome of this trial will be positive, and something that we can roll out across the rest of the UK.”
Since March 2018, Aldi has replaced more than 2,500 tonnes of plastic across its range with recyclable alternatives, and the supermarket is working to achieve 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging across its own-brand products by 2022.
Aldi is the UK’s fifth largest supermarket and, according to Kantar research, is also Britain’s fastest-growing business in the sector, with over 825 stores and 34,000 employees. The company has more than doubled its market share since 2010. In the 12 weeks to 24th February 2019, Aldi grew sales by 10% and has a 7.6% share of the market (Kantar Worldpanel data).
In 2019, Aldi is opening 65 new stores and by 2025 says it plans to operate over 1,200 stores countrywide.
