Aldi introduces a waste separation guide

Glass, paper or yellow bin? Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd want to explain to their customers how waste should be correctly disposed of. The discounters are the first food retailers to introduce self-explanatory information on the appropriate waste separation of recyclables on all their own brands.

Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have developed „tips for the bin“ that show how to dispose of the individual components of packaging correctly. The first tips on Aldi products will be available as of spring 2019. With the introduction of separation labels on all their own brands, the companies want to raise customer awareness for the subject of recycling. „The expansion of the recycling economy can only succeed if the recycling quotas are increased. We are making an important contribution to this with our separation instructions. Because only what is properly separated can be better recycled,“ says Kristina Bell, Group Buying Director at Aldi Süd, responsible for Quality & Corporate Responsibility.

Do I have to unscrew the lid from the jam jar? In which bin do milk cartons belong? And what about the plastic window on the pasta box? Answers to these and other questions can be found in the disposal guide. It shows in which bin a package and its individual components belong – the paper, glass or yellow bin. The instructions will be successively integrated into all private label packaging. „Our innovative packaging separation advice is another important step in Aldi’s packaging mission,“ says Rayk Mende, Managing Director Corporate Responsibility & Quality Assurance at Aldi Nord. „Our aim is to make waste separation as simple as possible for our customers and to help them do something for the environment along with us“.

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For certain product packagings, special features must be taken into account when selecting the correct disposal method. This applies particularly to packagings made of different materials. Self-explanatory graphics on selected packagings therefore demonstrate step by step how to properly separate and dispose of them. This can be illustrated using the organic yoghurt pot as an example: The pot is made of plastic, the lid of aluminium and the sleeve is made of paper. If the three components are not separated, they cannot be recycled properly afterwards. Therefore, the lid should always be separated from the pot and disposed of in the yellow bin. The sleeve belongs in the paper bin.