The supermarket chains Rewe and Lidl want to offer less plastic disposable items in future. Rewe announced that it would take all plastic straws from its assortment by end of year. In addition to 6,000 rewe markets, daughters Penny and Toom are also affected. Plastic stalks were a typical disposable product, a Rewe spokesman shared with m. On average, y would only be used for 20 minutes before y landed in trash. They were also among articles that would most often be washed up as rubbish on beaches around world. The Rewe group has been distributing over 42 million disposable plastic straws per year. From 2019, group offers alternatives of paper, wheat grass or stainless steel.
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Lidl and his daughter buy-in, until end of 2019, not only want to take plastic straws, but all disposable plastic items such as cups, plates, cutlery and cotton swabs from assortment. Instead, group wants to offer products from recyclable materials. The conversion succeeded after sale of quantities already purchased, company shared with. The supermarket chain also strives to dispense with drinks and food to take away on plastic cutlery and drinking straws. Lidl shared that company wants to reduce plastic consumption by 20 percent to 2025. The company had already announced this in March. Packaging of individual products has since been optimised. In addition, Lidl “has been offering a large number of unpacked fruit and vegetables for many years and has already abolished standard plastic carrying bag, which will save 3,500 tonnes of plastic every year.
Companies come before European Commission
The supermarket chains have been using ir initiatives to comply with regulatory regulations. At end of May, EU Commission presented its strategy against plastic waste in seas and announced a ban on drinking straws and disposable tableware. The EU Parliament and European Council must still adopt relevant EU directive. The Commission would like to present 2019 results before European elections in May.
In Germany, consumption of plastic is increasing, despite waste recycling and bottle deposit. From 1994 to today, amount of plastic waste has almost doubled, 2015 it was just under six million tonnes. Two thirds of m are burned, rest are recycled, stored or exported abroad. In addition to high environmental impact, micro-plastics are also a problem: plastic waste can be defragmented into tiny particles, which in turn enter into water and organisms living re. Researchers at Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven have recently discovered a record concentration of microplastics in Arctic sea ice. The consequences of plastic particles for marine animals and humans are scarcely investigated, but re are indications that y can lead to inflammatory reactions and behavioral changes.
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Environmentalists are not going far enough to take action in supermarket chains. According to Minister of Environment, SPD says that consumption of disposable products should be curbed altoger, said a spokesman of ministry, “because first and foremost it is a matter of approaching a pronounced disposable mentality.”
Greenpeace expert Manfred Santen said it was good that large food chains are doing more against increasing plastic waste. The plastic problem, however, is now too large to be able to “simply recycle” or stay in simple solutions. “In every supermarket, including those of Rewe or penny, re are tons of packaging and disposable plastic products,” says Santen. In order to contain se quantities, companies would have to set clear recycling targets.
