Aldi is making a huge change to an everyday snack product just months after supermarket was first to reach milestone
ALDI has announced it will make a huge change to a popular snack product in a bid to reduce waste and help customers recycle.
The discount retailer is set to introduce recycled plastic to its own-label crisp packaging – just months after introducing plastic-free packaging in other in-house products.
The supermarket will now use a minimum of 35% recycled content across its Specially Selected Hand Cooked range – and has already rolled out the change nationwide.
Aldi says it expects the change to cut 78 tonnes of unused plastic each year.
It also hopes to use the new packaging across its own-label popcorn and lentil chips by the end of the year as part of the eco-friendly movement.
Luke Emery, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi said: “At Aldi, we are continuously making changes when it comes to reducing plastic waste, and we know how important this is to our customers too.
“Increasing the recycled content in our crisp packaging is just one way we are helping our customers to reduce their environmental impact, with all these little changes adding up to make an even bigger difference.”
In April, Aldi became the first brand to move to 100 per cent recycled plastic for its own-brand soft drinks and bottled water, the Mirror reports.
The supermarket also rolled out plastic-free packaging on its own-label toothbrushes in a bid to reduce waste and help customers recycle.
It comes after the budget retailer Launched double toilet rolls – meaning shoppers could nab twice the amount of sheets per roll.
This cut down on packaging size and would axe a whopping 60 tonnes of plastic per year if present in all branches.
The change was being trialled at 200 of Aldi’s 1,000 stores in the West Midlands, East Midlands and Yorkshire.
However, some found the change controversial and sparked a debate on social media.
Meanwhile, Asda rolled out something similar in 2022, doubling the length of its own-brand loo paper, meaning two rolls became the equivalent of four.
Tesco also announced that it is creating a new range of toilet rolls and kitchen towels made from recycled cardboard and pulp.
The supermarket giant said the cardboard will come from home delivery boxes and corrugated cards from supermarkets.
Plus, Lidl has made a major change to everyday products across all its supermarkets in order to help shoppers decrease waste.
The discount chain is axing “use by” dates on their milk and yoghurts in order to prevent customers from throwing away edible food.
And, Lidl are not the only supermarket to make the move, with Marks and Spencer choosing the same initiative earlier this year.
Fellow industry giant Asda followed suit, while Morrisons and Co-op also ditched “use by” labels.
Co-op further removed best-before dates from over 150 fresh products, including apples, broccoli, carrots, onions, oranges, potatoes and tomatoes.
In a bid to cut down on waste supermarkets have also been removing different coloured milk caps.
The traditional blue, red and green lids are harder to recycle which has seen major retailers such as Tesco, Lidl, Asda, Aldi, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s implementing the move.
Tesco said the new caps can be recycled back into milk bottles which the retailer said will see an extra 3,900 tonnes of plastic recycled.