Lidl GB has announced that it is the first UK supermarket to incorporate 'Prevented Ocean Plastic' into its water bottles.
Prevented Ocean Plastic packaging, supplied and developed in conjunction with Bantam Materials, is made from discarded water bottles found in Southeast Asia within 30 miles of a coastline or major waterway that feeds into the ocean.
The collected material is then sorted and processed before being used in packaging. The entire process is fully traceable, with a documented chain of accountability.
Appearing in stores throughout July, Lidl’s one-litre San Celestino Italian Sparkling Mineral Water bottles will contain a minimum of 30% Prevented Ocean Plastic, plastic, which would have otherwise ended up in the ocean.
With 12 million bottles of the everyday item sold annually, this initiative is expected to save almost 100 tonnes of plastic from entering oceans per year, equivalent to almost four million plastic water bottles.
'Pressing Environmental Concern'
“Ocean plastic pollution is a pressing environmental concern, it is expected that by 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish," said Shyam Unarket, head of responsible sourcing and ethical trade at Lidl GB.
"As pioneers of integrating ocean bound plastic into our packaging in 2020, we have been consistently building and improving on our efforts since, and are proud to now extend Prevented Ocean Plastic into water bottles. Through this latest product development, we hope to inspire wider efforts across the industry.”
Eco-Friendly Packaging
Lidl says the move builds on the its previous efforts in this space after it became the first UK supermarket to introduce food packaging using Prevented Ocean Plastic in 2020.
Since then, it has been rolled out across a range of Lidl’s own-brand fresh fish, breaded poultry, sausage and fresh fruit products using the packaging – meaning that the retailer has already prevented the equivalent of more than 15 million plastic water bottles from entering the ocean, it said.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest packaging news. Article by Robert McHugh. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
