The use of plastics entails a high environmental impact, hence the importance of progressively reducing their use.
Companies are also an active and fundamental part in the search for solutions
.
Sustainability is a corporate concern, especially in the agri-food and distribution industries, which are beginning to become spearheads of
new ways of doing things.
In this scenario,
Carrefour stands out, which will achieve carbon neutrality in 2040
and has already managed to reduce the presence of plastic in its fruits and vegetables by 50% in Spain over the last three years.
Carrefour thus becomes a benchmark in the reduction of plastics, by replacing them with materials such as cardboard, mesh and biodegradable packaging, which
has allowed it to stop using more than 1,000 tons of plastic during this time.
“At Carrefour we have eliminated plastic from 70% of our vegetables, from Carrefour-brand citrus containers of up to 1.5 kilos and from 80% of our own-brand grapes.
Instead,
we have used other materials such as cellulose for the meshes or cardboard
for the fruit trays”, company sources explain.
And the advances continue, with the trays for fruits and vegetables
made of virgin cellulose fiber from the remains of forest pruning
and sustainable forests, 100% compostable and recyclable.
The best?
This will
reduce another five tons of plastic per year
.
And for customers to take their purchases home, they offer cardboard boxes as a sustainable alternative to bags.
This series of actions has helped
the group reduce the amount of plastic used by 7,154 tons over the last three years.
In addition, its objective is
to reduce the total number of containers by 20,000 tons by the year 2025
, of which 15,000 tons will also be plastic.
Those responsible for the chain believe that in the challenge of eliminating waste "a collective response is needed in which industry, distributors and customers collaborate together".
Under this premise,
Carrefour was a pioneer in Spain by allowing its customers to bring their own containers
to store and transport their purchases of fresh produce, thus reducing the number of containers handed out at counters.
But at Carrefour they also innovated by offering cotton leggings, which can be purchased and reused in future purchases.
Examples are not lacking, "because in greengrocers we opt for compostable and biodegradable bags, we have an
assortment of more than 80 bulk references in dried fruit
, and olives and pickles go in glass jars," they recall from Carrefour.
And customers also have
reusable cardboard boxes
and a compartment to throw away the plastic after completing their purchase.
To amplify the impact of its actions, Carrefour Spain has been leading the
MiPlayaSinPlásticos project for years.
The objective: to reflect on the impact of waste on beaches.
Each year they select several sandbanks, in which a cleaning and waste collection day is carried out.
In addition,
Alexandre de Palmas
, executive director of the company in Spain, has been appointed
for the second consecutive year as the only ambassador of forests by FSC
(Forest Stewardship Council), coinciding with World Forest Day, celebrated yesterday.
"We are committed to the
commitment to the environment in the activities we carry out on a daily basis
, since sustainability is key to our strategy," they say from the company.
Fighting waste, favoring the protection of biodiversity and sharing knowledge
and advances with partners, clients and collaborators are key to its green strategy.
Within the Carrefour Club Customer communities,
the company has created the Committed Customers Club, which already has 2,129 members,
together with whom it has collected more than 5.2 tons of plastic and recovered more than 21 hectares of forests.
It also collaborates with
ReciclaYa, which has already made it possible to recycle more than 14 million products
and prevent the emission of 290 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, the equivalent of 241 plane trips between Madrid and New York.
"We work on sustainable alternatives, which is why
stationery items have 100% ecological packaging and many are made of EcoPlanet paper,
without chemical bleaches," they highlight.
And they also remember the launch of "outdoor furniture and handcrafted toys made of certified wood".
Other interesting initiatives are its
new glass bottles or its bakery containers
, with which Carrefour has saved some 35 tons of plastic since December.
And it has also launched a
new 100% recyclable container for prepared dishes,
with which it will avoid using another 64 tons of plastic per year.
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