Aldi Trialling Loose Rice And Pasta In Attempt To Reduce Plastic Waste

They have started selling the products from large storage containers and offering customers recyclable paper bags in the hope of rolling it out across all of their stores in future.

At the minute, you can only get basmati rice, brown rice, penne pasta, and wholewheat fusilli loose in certain stores, but it could be the way that things start to go in the future.

Let's hope so, anyway, because it would cut a serious amount of plastic out of their stores if it catches on.

Around 130 tonnes - or 21 million pieces, if you prefer - each year.

The products will be sold by weight, and Aldi are also providing free brown paper bags that are fully recyclable and made from material certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) so they are sustainable.

Richard Gorman, the Plastics and Packaging Director of Aldi UK, said: "Customers at our Ulverston store can now buy the same high-quality items they know and love, while also cutting down on plastic packaging.

"We're always looking for new ways to reduce waste plastic and limit packaging, as many of our shoppers are increasingly conscious of the environment and their impact on it.

"We hope local customers embrace the trial and we will use their feedback to inform any future plans around refillable products."

So far, the trial is only at one Aldi supermarket, that's the one in Ulverston in Cumbria.

Whilst you'd have to call that a very limited trial, it will hopefully see this sort of thing rolled out across many more stores, rather than just one on the beautiful Furness Peninsula.

Last year, Aldi announced their intentions to halve the amount of plastics that they use in their stores by 2025.

That's exactly the kind of bold action that needs to be taken if we're to stop a load of plastic ending up in landfill or the oceans.

If successful, they'll remove 74,000 tonnes of plastic packaging from products over the next five years.

Aldi has also been carbon neutral since January 2019 and is on track to have all of their own-label products recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2022, and all products sold there by 2025.

Let's hope more supermarkets take up the baton and try similar schemes.