SUPERMARKET chain Mercadona has detailed its game-plan for cutting plastic waste in a press release – which includes using 100% recycled material for its 'squeeze-your-own' orange juice bottles.
Mercadona's ‘squeeze-your-own’ juice machines are even more popular now they use 100% recycled plastic for their bottles
The company's 'Strategy 6.25' includes cutting plastic use by 25% by the year 2025, using only packaging, wrapping and containers which can be recycled, and recycling all its own plastic waste.
Although the orange-juice counter – where nationally-produced, and usually very locally-grown, oranges are stuffed into a giant press for customers to fill up themselves – has long been extremely popular, some consumers had expressed their concerns about the high amount of disposable plastic it involves.
Three sizes of bottle – one litre, currently €2.79; half a litre, €1.79 at present, and 250ml, retailing at the moment at 99 cents – are taken from the rack by the customer and filled, but even though washing and reusing them does not cause any problems with the bar code at the till, this is not generally permitted and was not recommended even before the pandemic.
Suggestions of a scheme whereby customers return their used bottles and get a small discount on their juice have not been taken up, but these were redesigned a few months ago and are now 100% recycled plastic, meaning the issue of their disposable nature and potential pollution is only a problem if users put them in the landfill bin rather than the yellow recycling bank.
By making its bottles solely from recycled plastic rather than from newly-manufactured material, Mercadona will prevent the creation of 700 tonnes of 'new' plastic every year, thus contributing to the circular economy.
In addition to their recycled bottles, Mercadona has replaced its lightweight 'weigh-your-own' fruit and vegetable bags – instead of traditional plastic, they are now made from plant fibre, meaning they are biodegradable.
These can be disposed of in the 'brown bins', the latest addition to Spain's recycling bank collection, used for organic waste which is then turned into biomass for fuel or compost for the agricultural industry.
As yet, not every town in Spain has a 'brown bin', but at least, if the plant-fibre bags are disposed of in landfill, they will break down very quickly rather than taking centuries to do so as plastic does.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com