Lidl has announced a number of new moves to tackle plastic waste, including rolling out in-store recycling points.
Collection points for soft plastics – which industry sustainability group Wrap estimates fewer than 80% of local authorities can recycle – will be trialled in 12 Lidl stores in the West Midlands from October. Lidl plans to extend the initiative nationwide if successful.
Common soft plastics include carrier bags, biscuit wrappers, crisp packets, bread bags, petfood pouches and salad bags. Lidl joins a number of other supermarkets which already offer recycling points for the material, such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
Lidl said all eligible soft plastics left in its collection points would be recycled into products such as refuse sacks and rigid construction materials.
The discounter also today announced plans to replace all single-use plastic fruit and vegetable bags with a compostable alternative.
The new fruit and veg bags are suitable for home composting according to Lidl, and can also be reused as caddy liners for domestic food waste collections. They should not be put in the soft plastic recycling points, Lidl said.
Replacing all existing single-use fruit & veg bags with the new version – a transition to begin in January 2022 – will eliminate 275 tonnes of conventional single-use plastic a year, according to Lidl.
“At Lidl GB we are committed to tackling excessive plastic waste and our compostable fruit and vegetable bags are the latest innovation to help limit the amount of plastic in our environment,” said Lidl GB CEO Christian Härtnagel.
“As a bricks and mortar retailer, how we operate in our stores and the packaging we use plays such a vital role in helping customers to tackle their plastic consumption. By offering convenient solutions such as compostable bags and making it easier for customers to recycle more plastic through our in-store drop-off points, we are hoping to give customers the opportunity to take small steps to reduce and recycling their plastic packaging.”
Wrap strategic technical manager Helen Bird said: “It’s great news Lidl is taking its responsibility seriously in this area and introducing collection points for bags and wrapping.
“Our research showed many citizens were willing to bring this material back to stores and we’re encouraged by the success of these collections to date.”
A number of supermarkets have recently stepped up efforts to provide in-store recycling bins for soft plastics after Wrap set a target in May of making the collection points widely accessible to the UK public by the end of the year.
Tesco has offered them in all large stores since August, having trialled them in 171 since March. Aldi introduced them in 20 stores in May and Iceland rolled them into 13 Food Warehouse branches in July.
The Co-op recently introduced them to all stores and kicked off an out-of-home advertising push to highlight it. Sainsbury’s announced a similar rollout to 520 stores in June.
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