Disposing with disposables

It is an icon and has even made its way into a museum – the ALDI North plastic shopping bag. However, due to floating islands of plastic in the oceans, beaches littered with refuse and microplastics in our environment, it is clear that the disposable bag has finally outlived its usefulness. 

We have been offering bags to our customers for more than 100 years so they can safely transport their groceries home. In the first decades of our company’s history, these bags were still made of paper. But with the general advance of plastic in the 1960s, we introduced our plastic bag with the famous blue-and-white design. The design soon became iconic and even made it into an exhibition in Ingolstadt’s “Museum für Konkrete Kunst” in 2016. No matter where you look, you are sure to find the plastic bag. This has been the case now for more than 40 years – until today. Due to the environmental problems caused by plastic and plastic bags, it is high time for a new iconic object on our streets: the ALDI North reusable shopping bag. The same proven design, but better for the environment.

ALDI North is calling it quits with disposables, which spells the end for all conventional disposable shopping bags available at the cash register. We have gradually been eliminating them in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands since the end of 2017. In place of the plastic bag, the stores now offer an environmentally friendly alternative: the durable, reusable shopping bag, which is made from more than 80 per cent recycled materials. It is produced in Germany and features the recognised Blue Angel ecolabel. The reusable bag is also larger and stabler than the disposable version. Incidentally, we consciously decided against using disposable paper bags, as their production is a water- and energy-intensive process.

Available depending on the store and the country – up to seven options for transporting groceries home. Here are the latest models:

We are gradually rolling out the new reusable shopping bag at the stores in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. At the same time, all disposable bags are being eliminated from the range at those stores. The changeover is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018. To encourage the use of the environmentally friendly reusable bags already during the changeover process, we have increased the price of disposable bags, for example by 10 cents in Germany and by 15 cents in the Netherlands. The (additional) revenue from the sale of disposable bags is earmarked for helping environmental and social projects.