With plastic reduction currently a hot topic in food, a mobile supermarket aisle stocked exclusively with plastic-free products is set to tour Europe.
The mobile aisle offers an idea of what the retailers of the future could look like and is currently on display at a summit at The Hague in the Netherlands. It presents 300 food and drink products free from plastic packaging, including rice, chocolate and cereals.
Earlier this year, campaign group A Plastic Planet launched what is said to be the world’s first Plastic Free Aisle in a branch of Dutch supermarket chain Ekoplaza.
Now the campaigners have created the mobile version of the aisle which can move between cities across Europe.
Campaigners say plastic free aisles represent the future of food and drink retail, and UK Prime Minister Theresa May backed the measure in her first major speech on the environment.
The ‘Mobe-Aisle’ showcases packaging alternatives using pulpboard, fibre, cotton, card, paper, glass, metal and other biomaterials.
A Plastic Planet Co-Founder Sian Sutherland comments: “In a world suffocating in plastic, plastic free aisles offer our best chance of freedom. They give shoppers who no longer want to be part of the plastic problem the choice to be part of the plastic solution.
“The last 18 months have been a huge wake-up call for all of us. Now we know what we know about the result of our plastic addiction, let us not be the generation that caused this but did not do enough to change our ways. The Plastic Free Aisle is a symbol for change. Without choice, we cannot change.”
The news follows supermarkets such as Iceland, Waitrose and Morrison’s making a major effort to reduce plastic packaging in their stores by 2025.
