Düsseldorf. The Real supermarket chain wants to do away with plastic bags in the fruit and vegetable department by winter 2020. The thin plastic bags are to be replaced by free paper bags made from recycled material. The supermarket chain also wants to offer reusable nets. However, customers will have to buy these. According to the company, eliminating plastic bags in stores could save up to 70 million plastic bags.
The German Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation sees the reduction of plastic bags as a sensible step in the right direction. Nevertheless, it criticizes the use of paper bags as an alternative. Although these would be easier to break down in nature, they unfortunately require a lot of resources to produce. The production of paper bags requires more energy and more water than plastic products. It is better to use reusable bags, such as those already used by Edeka and Rewe.
"Sustainability is playing an increasingly important role for our customers in the food retail sector," mentioned the company's CEO Patrick Müller-Sarmiento. The company would therefore like to take further steps to protect the environment in the future.
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Well finally. It's nice that the supermarkets are now slowly coming around to the idea 🙂 It took long enough!
That's right! However, it will take some time before the ban comes into force. Still a good sign, of course!
Best regards
Christoph