“This is a first major milestone that we owe primarily to our really committed colleagues in the departments. You have worked hard and successfully on the reduction targets in various positions in the company, ”says Lavinia Ahmad, Head of Sustainability at Kaufland.
Milestones achieved
In the past three years, Kaufland has reduced plastic wherever possible and sustainable, designed products so that they are recyclable and steadily increased the proportion of recycled material in all own-brand packaging. In addition, the company is actively committed to the recycling of the materials brought into the cycle.
Kaufland is able to achieve this progress through the following measures, among others:
- Around 60 percent of all fruit and vegetable items are offered unpacked.
- Discontinuation of disposable carrier bags and offer of reusable carrier bags.
- Offer of reusable fresh bags for fruit and vegetables.
- No plastic lids on coffee and yogurt cups.
- Reduction of the plastic content in packaging in a wide variety of product range categories.
- All PET one-way returnable bottles from Kaufland's own brands in Germany that are manufactured by Schwarz Produktion are made from 100 percent * recycled plastic (rPET).
- Household goods made from 100 percent ** recycled material, which are produced in collaboration with PreZero.
Society as part of the process
“Raising the awareness of society and our employees is an elementary building block for us as part of our plastics strategy,” added Ahmad. That is why all of the company's channels are used to make customers and employees aware of how they can contribute to reducing plastic. The “Consciously packed” logo creates more transparency for Kaufland customers. It shows which product packaging has been optimized and is applied to various private label products. Through further measures, such as the Kaufland environmental campaign days at schools and the support of educational campaigns on the subject of waste separation, Kaufland is committed to consciously educating its customers.
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* except for the lid and label
** Plastic content (approx. 95 percent) of the product made from 100 percent recycled plastic, additional use of additives and color (approx. 5 percent).
