Kroger’s next phase includes private brands focus, sustainability

ALDI has committed to removing single-use plastic from all of its own-brand tea bags by the end of this year. The UK’s fifth-largest supermarket will replace the oil-based plastic sealant on the bags with biodegradable materials. It follows a similar move by Sainsbury’s in January. Aldi said the outer plastic wrapping on boxes will also be dropped. The move means 1.4 billion pieces of single-use plastic will be removed. Richard Gorman, of Aldi, said: “The changes we’ve made to our tea range will help us reduce our environmental impact and offer our customers even more environmentally sustainable options.” He added: “By the end of this year, all of our own-brand tea bags will be biodegradable and contain no plastic whatsoever.”

From takeout food to online shopping, more people are leveraging the safety and convenience of ordering online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As unprecedented as this moment in time is, consumers’ shifting purchasing habits have a silver lining—people are paying more attention to the sustainability of product packaging. While the pandemic has compounded an environmental crisis, consumers are paying attention to issues of sustainability in a different way and prioritizing the need for greater packaging sustainability. As we navigate this “new normal,” our awareness of just how much we are consuming has sharpened our focus on the need to advance toward a circular economy for a more sustainable world.