Albertsons Companies, a US food and drug retailer, has announced a new pledge for the reduction of plastic in packaging.
Image: Food and drug retailer Albertsons has announced new plastic waste reduction pledge. Photo: courtesy of hepjam3 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
The new plastic waste reduction pledge will help Albertsons to advance sustainability across the firm, beginning with its Own Brands portfolio.
Albertsons said the new commitment expedites the circular economy for packaging at its 2,300 Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Tom Thumb, Shaw’s, Star Market, ACME Markets, Randalls, Haggen and other banner stores.
As part of the plastic waste reduction initiative, Albertson intends to make Own Brands product packaging recyclable, reusable, or industrially compostable by 2025. Own Brands plastic packaging will feature 20% recycled content by 2025.
Albertson is also planning to decrease plastic usage, specifically single-use plastics. The company intends to use recycle operational plastics for retail, industrial and consumer items.
The firm will also provide clear recycling communications on Own Brands product packaging, including the use of QR Codes, by 2022.
Albertsons is working with How2Recycle to standardize its labeling system, in addition to enhancing the reliability, completeness and transparency of recyclability claims.
The firm will also source and share industry best practices with other members of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a 250-company collaborative of retailers, manufacturers, governments and educational institutions focused on sustainable packaging.
Albertsons is completing a pilot on an advanced closed-loop recycling program to reuse suppliers’ plastic corrugate boxes into new ones.
Its Southern California division has collaborated with a vendor to recycle #5 polypropylene crates, which can be used by suppliers for shipping products such as fruits and vegetables.
The stores return bales of collapsed crates, after they are emptied at store level. Later, the collapsed crates will be processed into plastic pellets by approved recyclers and used to produce new crates.
Own Brands president Geoff White said: “As we innovate and expand our Own Brand lines, we always keep the overall impact of packaging in mind and seek out ways to improve sustainability for each and every product.
“Our suppliers are strong partners in this effort and, in many cases, are leading the charge on reducing, reusing, and decreasing plastic content.”