LIDL is building on its use of Prevented Ocean Plastic packaging by extending the packs to its fresh meat ranges.
A selection of the supermarket’s sausages will be packaged in trays containing a minimum of 30% of Prevented Ocean Plastic from this week.
Prevented ocean packaging is the work of Bantam Materials. The firm makes the packaging from discarded bottles found in Southeast Asia within 30 miles of a coastline or major waterway feeding into the ocean.
The bottles are sorted and processed before being used to create packaging. The entire process is fully traceable, with a ‘robust’ documented chain of accountability. Raffi Schieir, director of Bantam Materials, praised Scotland for its role in the operation during an interview with Packaging Scotland earlier this year, to read it click here.
Lidl was the first UK retailer to incorporate Prevented Ocean Plastic into its packaging in 2020. It is now used across ‘most’ of the retailers own brand fresh fish ranges and is also used in some of its breaded poultry ranges.
Earlier this year, Lidl reached the milestone of preventing the equivalent of 15 million plastic water bottles from entering the ocean. This latest change would see an estimated additional 1.7 million water bottles prevented from entering the ocean each year – around 40 tonnes of plastic.
Amali Bunter, Lidl GB’s head of responsible sourcing and ethical trade, said, “As the first UK supermarket to launch packaging using Prevented Ocean Plastic, we are so proud to have now prevented the equivalent of over 15 million plastic water bottles from entering the ocean. Of course, our commitment to tackling the detrimental impact of plastic waste doesn’t end there and we’ll continue to work with our suppliers to build on our efforts.”
