Takeaway coffee minus a lid
Kaufland is now selling its own brand K-to-go coffee mugs without plastic lids. Instead, the company, which belongs to the Schwarz Group, has integrated a drinking opening into the aluminium lid, thus creating an innovative and unique solution for the retail trade.
“We are constantly pursuing our goal of reducing plastic consumption,” explains Lavinia Kochanski, Head of Sustainability at Kaufland. “We have now banned plastic lids after saving on the plastic film used for cucumbers. This saves us 44 tonnes of plastic waste a year”. The takeaway cups are always a subject of public criticism and the Federal Ministry for the Environment also points out the problem of takeaway cups generating a lot of waste in public spaces. In 2017, eighteen percent of all German plastic waste came from take-away cups. According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, around 140,000 takeaway cups an hour are used in Germany. A representative study by the market research company TNS Emnid showed that around 460,000 of these cups are used every day in Berlin alone.
Kaufland continues to as assume a responsibility for reducing plastic consumption. In September of this year, the company intends to remove disposable tableware from its product range. Kaufland is part of the Schwarz Group, to which Lidl also belongs. With “REset Plastic”, the group has developed a holistic, international strategy that is organised into five areas of activity – prevention, design, recycling, disposal, as well as innovation and education. This brings the vision of “less plastic – closed loop systems” a step closer to reality.
