Aldi to remove 900 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic each year

[Chippy_Tea]

Aldi has unveiled a new ban that will come into force across every one of its supermarkets in the country.

The retail giant has announced that it is switching from plastic packaging to pulp trays on its remaining egg lines, meaning all egg packaging in England and Wales will be plastic-free by the end of the year.

The ban on plastic packaging will see the removal of 900 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic each year – equating to 24 million pieces of plastic.

The move is part of Aldi’s pledge to halve the volume of plastic packaging used by 2025.

This will see it remove 74,000 tonnes - or 2.2 billion single items - of plastic packaging from products over the next five years.

Richard Gorman, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi, said: “We are proud to be amongst the first to commit to cutting plastic packaging from our entire egg range.

“We have a responsibility to provide customers with environmentally-sustainable options and it’s changes like this that help to make a difference.

“We’ve set ambitious targets to reduce our environmental impact over the next few years and so it’s now up to us to continue to step up our efforts to achieve these.”

The supermarket, which has been carbon neutral since January 2019, says it is also on track to have all own-label products as recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022, and branded products sold at Aldi by 2025.

https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/1912...oming-place-every-supermarket-across-country/

 

[LeeH]

If all their eggs were free range I’d pat them on the back. Until then no celebration here I’m afraid.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

In an ideal world people would only eat free range eggs but people do not want to or cannot afford to pay the extra for them.

You could also say the same about other products all supermarkets sell, i visit a lot of farms in my job and if you could see the state they keep their cows in in winter when they are brought in and housed in barns you wouldn't but meat from a cow again, believe me the farm programmes on the TV now are nothing like the real world, i am not saying all farms treat their animals like this but many do.

These are not photos taken by me but this is the kind of thing i see often.

 

[LeeH]

It’s for the reasons above why my wife is a veggie.

 

[Oneflewover]

Kudos to Aldi, brilliant move.

Re free range eggs. It shouldn't be a case of 'can't afford to or don't want to'. I keep chickens, so perhaps am biased, but anyone who chooses to eat eggs from a caged hen needs to take a good long look at themselves.

Also agree with chippy re the conditions that milking herds are kept in. We buy our milk from a local farm who deliver to our doorstep. The herd (I have seen them) look healthy and well looked after. Yes it costs a little more (it also tastes better), but what price your conscience?

Anyway, back on topic, I really hope other supermarkets follow Aldi's lead.

 

[mitch]

They ought to remove that utter garbage canned ipa tribute to brewdog as well.

 

[Clint]

I have a few farmer friends. Mostly dairy herd,leaving them out through the winter in wet fields is a recipe for disaster. You may see the cattle out grazing early fodder crops but they'll be regularly brought in to hard standing until things dry up a bit.

 

[Oneflewover]

I have a few farmer friends. Mostly dairy herd,leaving them out through the winter in wet fields is a recipe for disaster. You may see the cattle out grazing early fodder crops but they'll be regularly brought in to hard standing until things dry up a bit.

Yeah absolutely. But check out how some of those cows in those industrial dairy herds are kept, it's disgraceful

 

[Clint]

Yeah agree...they never see grass let alone eat any..

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

Quite why any supermarket sells eggs in plastic trays is beyond me. I'm nearly 50 and I don't ever remember a time when paper pulp boxes weren't available. This is all PR puff.

I remember years ago when I walked into my local supermarket under a banner proudly proclaiming 'all our fresh meat is British'. Except the chicken in their fresh ready meals that is.

I don't know if it's still the case, but chicken for cheap ready meals used to come from the far east via the Netherlands where it would be 'tumbled' with water and beef proteins to add weight and flavour.

 

[Galena]

If all their eggs were free range I’d pat them on the back. Until then no celebration here I’m afraid.

I would never eat an egg from battery hen or it's meat, I keep my own hens. However not sure as it's actually possible to buy true free range eggs at the moment anyway.

 

[Oneflewover]

I would never eat an egg from battery hen or it's meat, I keep my own hens. However not sure as it's actually possible to buy true free range eggs at the moment anyway.

Avian influenza restrictions? Still a world of difference between barn housed and caged

 

[Galena]

Avian influenza restrictions? Still a world of difference between barn housed and caged

Absolutely

 

[Clint]

If I can I get my eggs from the chicken man on the allotment. I often chuck some green stuff over for them.

 

[Hop_it]

It's very commendable that Aldi have committed to removing 900t/a of non-recyclable plastics from the waste stream . . . . . BUT who is doing anything about the vast amount of recyclable plastic packaging that isn't being recycled because local authorities do not have the recourses, the infrastructure or in some cases the will to deal with it????? Unfortunately just the act of embossing the recycling triangle on a piece of plastic packaging, and the accompanying boast - "Look, this package is recyclable" doesn't make it happen.
It is difficult and expensive to collect, sort and clean post consumer plastics packaging waste. The task is made more challenging because there are so many different polymers used in packaging, and in the vast majority of cases they cannot be mixed if they are to be successfully recycled/reused. There are some low level, low tech applications for some materials where a small amount of cross-contamination is tolerable, e.g. faux wood for park benches. But if you want to make packaging again and retain its value (especially food packaging), the recycled feedstock has to be clean and free from contamination. In addition to this there are often issues with processing clean recycled feedstock. Many of the polymers become slightly degraded after being processed (even once). This can alter their properties, so bottle producers and film producers are often not keen to use it, or at least not as a large proportion in the mix because it can seriously reduce productivity - unless of course there is a major financial incentive, i.e. cheap.
I do not claim to be an expert, but I worked in the plastics industry for most of my working life . . . . . . In my very humble opinion the most viable long term solution will be a cost effective process to break down mixed plastic waste into its usable chemical parts, and reuse the base chemicals rather than the individual polymers.

 

[Leon103]

I have a few farmer friends. Mostly dairy herd,leaving them out through the winter in wet fields is a recipe for disaster. You may see the cattle out grazing early fodder crops but they'll be regularly brought in to hard standing until things dry up a bit.

I agree. We could never leave our cows on pasture all year round. The land would be ruined for decades and the animals would be in a poor state.

 

[Clint]

Seeing as we're all going electric perhaps they should incinerate the lot to create electricity and process the fumes coming from the plant.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

It's very commendable that Aldi have committed to removing 900t/a of non-recyclable plastics from the waste stream . . . . . BUT who is doing anything about the vast amount of recyclable plastic packaging that isn't being recycled because local authorities do not have the recourses, the infrastructure or in some cases the will to deal with it?

That's very true. My local authority doesn't even recycle glass at the kerbside and the rest goes in...plastic bags!

With regard to supermarket waste, I know of one branch of the big 6 that has no recycling bins in staff areas.

I don't know if they're obliged to do it or if it's a voluntry thing, but if we all returned our plastic packaging, regardless of what they do with it, they'd soon be telling suppliers to use alternative packaging once it starts affecting their bottom line. Also, quite why fruit and veg like carrots and onions needs to be pre packed is beyond me.

'Customer choice' would be the answer, but if they all stopped, there wouldn't be any need for customer choice. You either bag them yourself or don't buy them.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

It's very commendable that Aldi have committed to removing 900t/a of non-recyclable plastics from the waste stream . . . . . BUT who is doing anything about the vast amount of recyclable plastic packaging that isn't being recycled because local authorities do not have the recourses, the infrastructure or in some cases the will to deal with it????? Unfortunately just the act of embossing the recycling triangle on a piece of plastic packaging, and the accompanying boast - "Look, this package is recyclable" doesn't make it happen.
It is difficult and expensive to collect, sort and clean post consumer plastics packaging waste. The task is made more challenging because there are so many different polymers used in packaging, and in the vast majority of cases they cannot be mixed if they are to be successfully recycled/reused. There are some low level, low tech applications for some materials where a small amount of cross-contamination is tolerable, e.g. faux wood for park benches. But if you want to make packaging again and retain its value (especially food packaging), the recycled feedstock has to be clean and free from contamination. In addition to this there are often issues with processing clean recycled feedstock. Many of the polymers become slightly degraded after being processed (even once). This can alter their properties, so bottle producers and film producers are often not keen to use it, or at least not as a large proportion in the mix because it can seriously reduce productivity - unless of course there is a major financial incentive, i.e. cheap.
I do not claim to be an expert, but I worked in the plastics industry for most of my working life . . . . . . In my very humble opinion the most viable long term solution will be a cost effective process to break down mixed plastic waste into its usable chemical parts, and reuse the base chemicals rather than the individual polymers.

Our council collects recycling which is sorted into mixed cardboard and paper in one box, glass in another and we have a large bag with a velcro flap on top so it can be closed we have to put plastic and cans in this bag and a wheelie bin for non recyclable rubbish, in the next town they have a totally different set up they have a wheeli bin for mixed recycling a wheelie bin for non recyclable rubbish and a box for glass, I haven't a clue which is the best system or why we have such a different way of collecting it.
As far as I know councils cannot force you to recycle and that is why many don't bother.

 

[Hop_it]

Our council collects recycling which is sorted into mixed cardboard and paper in one box, glass in another and we have a large bag with a velcro flap on top so it can be closed we have to put plastic and cans in this bag and a wheelie bin for non recyclable rubbish, in the next town they have a totally different set up they have a wheeli bin for mixed recycling a wheelie bin for non recyclable rubbish and a box for glass, I haven't a clue which is the best system or why we have such a different way of collecting it.
As far as I know councils cannot force you to recycle and that is why many don't bother.

I have my doubts about whether there really is a "best system" for local collection. However, I am sure that the disjointed approach to recycling post consumer waste plastic packaging in the UK does nothing to convince Joe and Josephine Public of its merits. But whatever the local authorities do or don't do it is really what happens next that matters more . . . . . and this costs serious money. As we have seen many times on the tv, shipping it off to third world countries to deal with is a disaster.
Certainly, using less plastic packaging is part of the answer, but there is a cost (e.g. increased wastage) when some foods are not prepacked. Fruit and veg will for the most part be OK without additional packaging, but meat packaging is essential to prolong shelf life. Changing to glass looks beneficial because of the ease with which glass can be recycled, but the transport costs go up, and more energy is consumed because of the increased weight. There really is no easy way out is this mess . . . . . . Unless we forego the ease and convenience of supermarket shopping, and live off the land like the Tom and Barbara Goode