Schwarz Group Increases its Recycling Target
The Schwarz Group is taking stock of the targets and progress of its group-wide plastics strategy Reset Plastic. The occasion for this is the Global Commitment 2021 Progress Report published on November 19 by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, whose initiative the Schwarz Group already joined in 2018. It also announced an increase in its recycling target.
The interim results show: The corporate group is getting closer to its goals. According to the corporate group, numerous sustainable optimization measures have contributed to an average of 13 percent less plastic being used in the private label packaging of the Lidl and Kaufland retail divisions across all countries – for example, by omitting disposable plastic lids from 500-gram yogurt pots or using recyclable stickers instead of poly bags in the fruit and vegetable sector. Already today, 38 percent of all fruit and vegetable items at Lidl and 57 percent at Kaufland are unpackaged, according to a press release.
The corporate group is increasingly focusing on promoting the circular economy and the associated use of recycled materials. Currently, 10 percent recyclate is already used in all own-brand plastic packaging in the Schwarz Group across all countries – at Lidl Germany it is 19 percent, at Kaufland Germany 16 percent (as of fiscal 2020). Since June 2021, 100 percent (excluding the cap and label) of all non-refillable PET bottles produced by Schwarz Produktion for Lidl and Kaufland private labels in Germany have been made of recycled plastic (rPET). In cooperation with PreZero, Lidl and Kaufland offer their customers own-brand household goods on special offer that are made from 100 percent recycled material – an offer that the corporate group will further expand in the future.
This makes the Schwarz Group a pioneer in the field of circular economy and shows how recyclable materials can be recycled in the best possible way and how the need for new plastic can be reduced. Against this backdrop, the Schwarz Group is now going one step further and increasing its recycling target: by 2025, the corporate group aims to use an average of 25 percent recycled material in the private label packaging of its Lidl and Kaufland retail divisions.
