Town’s Aldi stores to scrap single use plastic bags

ALDI stores in Loughborough are set to scrap single-use plastic bags for loose fruit and veg as part of the supermarket’s campaign to reduce the volume of plastic bags sold and switch to reusable alternatives.

Later this month, 100 stores in the midlands will trial removing free single-use plastic produce bags entirely. Instead, they will be replaced with reusable drawstring bags, to test whether shoppers can be encouraged to bring their own bags for loose fruit and veg or reuse ones they have bought in store. The drawstring produce bags are made from recycled bottles and retail at 25p.

If rolled out nationwide, scrapping single-use plastic bags will remove the equivalent of approximately 109 tonnes of plastic from circulation each year.

Aldi is also putting the price of its flexi-loop ‘bags for life’ up from 9p to 15p to encourage their reuse. The price increase is across all UK stores and comes into effect on Monday, February 24.

Home-compostable bags will continue to be available in store for 6p, giving shoppers a more sustainable option.

The company says that money raised from the price increase will be reinvested in future packaging reduction initiatives.

Fritz Walleczek, managing director of corporate responsibility at Aldi, said: “We are determined to drastically cut singleuse plastic, and evolving our approach to the sale and distribution of bags is an important step forward.

“We’ve charged for carrier bags since opening our first UK store in 1990, so our shoppers are already in the habit of reusing them, but these steps will hopefully help people switch to entirely reusable alternatives.”

Last month, Aldi scrapped all plastic applicators from its ownbrand tampons, saving 14 tonnes of plastic a year.

The supermarket, which has been carbon neutral since January 2019, says it is also on track to have all own-label packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022 and aims to reduce plastic packaging by 25 per cent by the end of 2023.