Coop Norway has announced a litter clean up campaign, as part of a series of initiatives to tackle plastic waste.
The retailer will run its ‘Coop rydder Norge’ initiative from April 30 to May 5, offering free cleaning kits and collection points to encourage its employees, customers and co-owners to collect litter across the country.
“Littering affects all of us and we in Coop will have a responsibility to do our part,” said Knut Lutnæs, environmental manager at Coop Norway. “Together with our customers, who are also our owners, we will now contribute to clearing Norway of marine litter.”
The campaign will operate in close cooperation with the association ‘Hold Norge Rent’ (‘Keep Norway Clean’) and their beach clean ups.
Free Kits
The retailer will hand out free cleaning kits with gloves and bags and make available several return points in stores for collecting the filled kits.
Participants should fill the bag with non-oiled waste and are encouraged to post pictures of their efforts on the Coop website and on social media.
"We in Coop are lucky to have over 1.6 million co-owners and many stores across Norway,” Lutnæs said. “Together we can strengthen our efforts to effect change. In addition to being a small but important contribution, the goal of the campaign is to raise awareness and understanding of the scale of plastic waste.”
Creating Awareness
He continued by saying that taking part in local cleaning action creates awareness and understanding of the problem. Further, he emphasised that the problem is not solved by clean ups only, but also by prevention of waste.
The amount of waste dumped into Norwegian waters is estimated to be around 36,000 tonnes annually. Some 70% of this sinks to the bottom of the sea, lakes and rivers, while 15% floats and accumulates in the sea and another 15% ends up back on land.
"In addition to helping to clean up, Coop is committed to optimising packaging and reducing plastic usage, including finding replacement for more plastic products,”Lutnæs said. “The entire operations of Coop in the Nordic region are collaborating on this, in addition to measures with other sectors of the grocery industry.”
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Kevin Duggan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
