In a move to support a circular economy, retail chain Carrefour (Boulogne-Billancourt / France; www.carrefour.com) has announced a plan to reduce disposable packaging, as part of its “Food Transition” strategy. The group aims to reach 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging for its own brands by 2025.

Creating a new packaging economy and reducing plastic waste is a challenge that requires collective action, the company says. Carrefour supports “a 100% circular economy of packaging in France” that is in line with the French circular economy roadmap “Feuille de route pour l’économie circulaire” (FREC) – see Plasteurope.com of 24.05.2018. A rethink is needed for reducing packaging and single-use plastics, and to systematise recycling, and the supermarket chain intends to eliminate non-recyclable packaging of organic fruit and vegetables and stop selling plastic straws by the end of 2018. It is also planning to “gradually replace” plastic straws on juice cartons.

The French group is committed to using recyclable packaging for all its own brand products, starting with its organic products, by 2020. Polystyrene trays used for meat, fish and cheese will be replaced with recyclable packaging. By 2022, Carrefour aims to use 50% recycled plastics for its juice, soda and water bottles.

Shortly after the EU published its plastics strategy – see Plasteurope.com of 19.01.2018 – UK premium food supplier Cranswick (Hull; www.cranswick.plc.uk) announced similar commitments to reduce “avoidable plastics” by 2025, and UK supermarket chain Iceland (Deeside; www.iceland.co.uk) said it would phase out plastic packaging of its own-label products – see Plasteurope.com of 19.01.2018. German supermarket chain Lidl (Neckarsulm; www.lidl.com) also created targets to reduce its overall plastics consumption in Germany – see Plasteurope.com of 22.02.2018.