EDEKA does not use plastic for all cucumbers. The new packaging strategy independent of this is based on the three pillars of reduction, reusable and recycling. Photo: © obs/EDEKA ZENTRALE AG & Co. KG/EDEKA / Christian Schmid, 2019
EDEKA now offers all cucumbers only unpackaged, saving 94 tons of plastic per year. This applies to all conventional and organic cucumbers, which are centrally purchased by EDEKA Fruchtkontor and delivered to the retail trade.
Tomatoes are also increasingly being sold in bulk or in cardboard trays instead of plastic in EDEKA stores. But not only for fruit and vegetables, but across the entire private label range, the EDEKA network optimises all products with regard to their packaging.
"We use three levers: "Where possible, we avoid plastic. At the same time, we promote reusable solutions and, thirdly, increase the proportion of recycled materials.
...says Markus Mosa, chairman of the board of the EDEKA headquarters. "But we also want to raise awareness of the fact that every individual has a choice when it comes to purchasing." With this objective, EDEKA launched a umfangreiche Informationsoffensive, to promote the use of environmentally friendly alternatives among consumers.
Under the motto "unpackaged", EDEKA is bringing the topic of plastic packaging into focus on all channels. Until the end of September, the three EDEKA strategies reduction, reusable and recycling will be presented using concrete product examples. Even with unconventional means - such as the new Online-Video "unverpackt", das seit dem Launch bei EDEKA auf YouTube und Facebook für Aufmerksamkeit sorgt.
Cucumbers completely unveiled
The dealer's interim balance sheet is impressive: EDEKA currently has the lowest plastic quota in the fruit and vegetable departments and already offers more than half of this range without plastic packaging. This is the result of a market check* by the consumer advice centres in May 2019. And this quota is set to fall further: with immediate effect, EDEKA Fruchtkontor, which supplies fruit and vegetables to retailers throughout Germany, is completely dispensing with the plastic film used to shrink-wrap some of its cucumbers.
EDEKA has also created facts for other high-turnover products: For example, 5.4 million plastic trays are replaced by cardboard trays for truss tomatoes alone every year. Another example: By marking many fruits and vegetables with labels or laser printing (smart branding), around 50 tons of plastic can be saved per year.
Reusable!
EDEKA also ensures less plastic waste with reusable products. Reusable nets are offered as an alternative to the thin plastic bags for fruit and vegetables. In three and a half years, EDEKA has already saved over 100 million conventional knot bags.
Reusable boxes or tray solutions are also becoming more and more common at the fresh food counters for meat and sausages. In the Büsum pilot market EDEKA Jensen alone, more than 2,000 of the refillable cans are already in circulation. Already established for a long time in almost all markets of the EDEKA network: resource-saving reusable systems for beverages, especially for reusable glass bottles from regional bottlers.
A third element in the reduction of packaging waste is the reuse of recyclable materials. The EDEKA network works consistently to increase the proportion of recycled materials in the packaging of its own-brand products. For example, the orange juice bottles of its own brand GUT&GÜNSTIG now have a recycled plastic content of 50 percent, which saves 87 tons of new plastic per year.
