Aldi is removing all plastic lids on its own-label fresh and cultured cream products and ready-to-drink coffee products, as part of its ongoing campaign to reduce single-use plastics.
From March, Scotland’s fourth largest volume retailer will stock these products without unnecessary plastic lids in its 91 Scottish stores.
This initiative will remove over three million pieces of single-use plastic from the market.
In addition to this, Aldi will trial the removal of plastic lids from its large Greek-style flavoured yogurt pots in England and Wales. If successful, this will be rolled out across all 500g yogurt pots, eliminating a further 34 million pieces of plastic across the UK.
These moves are the supermarket’s latest steps to scrap unnecessary plastic as it works towards reducing plastic packaging by 25% by the end of 2023.
Fritz Walleczek, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility at Aldi, said: “We are committed to cutting the amount of plastic that Aldi and our customers use, particularly unnecessary, single-use plastic like secondary lids.
“Every step like this brings us closer to our target of reducing the amount of plastic we use in packaging by 25%.”
Aldi is on track to have all own-label packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022. Since 2018, it has removed more than 2,200 tonnes of plastic and replaced almost 3,000 tonnes of unrecyclable material with recyclable alternatives.
For several years Aldi has led the way with local sourcing and the retailer has built strong relationships with over 90 Scottish suppliers.
Last year, the supermarket was crowned Scottish Sourcing Business of the Year at the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards. To aid Aldi’s expanding footprint in Scotland, the supermarket has invested in a new £25 million freezer and chill facility in Bathgate, which will be operational in spring this year.
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