Carrefour Belgium has launched a new initiative to tie in with the European Week for Waste Reduction: consumers are encouraged to bring their own reusable boxes and cartons for purchases from traditional food counters, such as the deli, fishmonger and butcher.
The original pilot project was launched at the Carrefour Hypermarket in Bierges, near Wavre, in early November, before being rolled out to every food counter in the Carrefour Hypermarkets and Carrefour Markets operated by Carrefour Belgium.
Simple and Sustainable
‘The principle is simple and sustainable,’ Carrefour wrote in a statement. ‘Customers bring their bulk bags or reusable boxes with them and use them to pack the products they buy from traditional food counters. The person serving them alters the scales so as to exclude the weight of the container and affixes a price label in the same way as they would to classic plastic packaging.’
The retailer added that it is ‘vital’ that customers provide only clean, dry boxes suitable to carry foodstuffs. ‘If food safety cannot be guaranteed, a store employee may refuse to use the container in question,’ it wrote. ‘To prevent cross-contamination, different types of meat, cheese and/or processed meat will always be packed in different boxes.’
At the same time, some 16 stores across Belgium are testing reusable fabric bags for fruit and vegetables, which are more eco-friendly than traditional carrier bags.
The bags are sold at €2.40 for five, i.e. €0.60 per bag, and are washable and ‘sufficiently robust to be reused a number of times’.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
