Grocery retailer ALDI U.S. has announced several commitments to address the plastic pollution crisis. Among them:
- Make 100% of its packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025
- Reduce packaging of ALDI-exclusive products by at least 15% by 2025 (90% of the retailer’s products are private label)
- Include a How2Recycle label on 100% of ALDI-exclusive consumable packaging by 2020
- Implement an initiative to make private-label packaging easier to reuse by 2020
- Continue to improve product packaging through internal expertise and external evaluations
In addition to these commitments, ALDI U.S. has never used single-use plastic grocery bags, a move the company estimates has kept 15 billion single-use plastic bags out of landfills and oceans.
Says Greenpeace Senior Oceans Campaigner David Pinsky,“ALDI U.S. is taking steps in the right direction by acknowledging its role in the plastic pollution crisis, and beginning to embrace reduction and reuse. The company has already taken positive steps by never offering single-use plastic grocery bags, ensuring they are kept out of landfills and our oceans.
“It’s important that ALDI U.S. and other retailers act with the greatest urgency and ambition to eliminate problematic plastics. While the company might intend to make packaging recyclable or compostable, it does not mean that packaging will actually be recycled or composted. To date, only nine percent of single-use plastics ever created have actually been recycled. We encourage ALDI U.S. to accelerate efforts to reduce throwaway plastics and build systems of reuse for the sake of our planet and communities impacted by the pollution crisis.”
