The Refill Coalition announced that supermarket chain Aldi has joined its industry partners in order to fight against the use of single-use plastic packaging in the market.
The Refill Coalition is Aldi, British grocery firm Ocado, retailer Waitrose & Partners and the supply chain solutions company CHEP.
It was convened in 2020 by a UK-based firm Unpackaged with funding from UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Plastics Packaging Challenge.
The Refill Coalition co-designs and develops refill solutions that minimise and remove the use of single-use plastic.
If successful, the solution has the potential to reduce 56.5 billion units of single-use plastic packaging sold annually in the UK.
Aldi UK Plastics and Packaging director Luke Emery said: “Aldi is dedicated to reducing single-use plastic, which is why we are pleased to become a member of the Refill Coalition.
“We look forward to working together with industry partners to offer customers even more convenient and efficient ways to shop plastic-free and drive further uptake of unpackaged products.”
According to the UK circular plastic network, some retailers have already launched refill stations to manage single-use plastic packaging waste.
The Refill Coalition’s solution will reimagine the supply of key food staples like pasta and grains and household products such as home and personal care products.
Refill stations will enable customers to bring their own reusable containers in exchange for loose products like lentils or raisins.
The Refill Coalition solution is currently under production, and the first store, specialising in dry store goods, is anticipated to launch later this year.
Unpackaged director Catherine Conway said: “We look forward to launching the solution later in the year so that refills can become more accessible to UK shoppers who still want to consume less single-use plastic packaging on the items they purchase.”
