The Sustainability Offensives of the Retail Sector

The environmental protection organization WWF has been advising the Edeka Group on sustainability issues since 2009. In mid-April, both sides extended the contract "until at least 2032".

As late as 2021, Tilisco, a management consultancy specializing in packaging, did not give the cooperation a good report card. It complained that "the full-bodied announcements on one of the eight core topics, packaging, have not been followed by any noticeable or visible consequences to date," according to packaging analyst Sonja Bähr. "Concrete changes? No such thing."

That has changed. In the "Progress Report 2022," published April 19, 2023, Edeka and the WWF list a whole series of changes. Three examples:

- Single-use beverage bottles with deposits: Edeka states the share of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) in the total volume of 15,320 tons of PET at 24.75 percent (for 81 relevant items). The target is 25 percent; in summer 2020, the share was still 1.48 percent.
- Drugstore/detergent and cleaning products: The share of rPET in the total volume of 687.79 metric tons of PET is 64.34 percent (for 25 relevant articles), according to Edeka. The target is 30 percent; in the summer of 2020, the share was still zero percent.
- PVC: For 2021, Edeka lists 53 articles with PVC content in the relevant article groups. In the summer of 2020, the figure was 237, and the general target is "avoidance of PVC". 

All good news, then, but based in part on good faith. "There are currently no laboratory testing methods that can determine recycled content," Edeka said when asked how rPET content is controlled. "The recycled content values we quote and which have been verified by the KMPG economic institute are therefore based on information from the production processes and the contractual agreements we have made with our suppliers."

At any rate, Edeka's figures put it in a pretty good position in the market. The "Handelsblatt" reported, also in April 2023, major branded companies "are in danger of missing their plastic targets." In the case of one of them, the proportion of used plastic was 16 percent - "barely more than two years earlier." The other has more than doubled its quota compared to 2020, but is only at ten percent. And the third is achieving 26 percent, but is aiming for an unrealistic target of 50 percent by 2025.
What is Edeka doing better? Headquarters may not judge, but says: "Basically, we all, manufacturers and retailers, certainly face the same challenges: limited availability of recyclates, regulatory restrictions on the use of recyclate, volatile supply chains and also costs."

Another retailer is even putting packaging at the center of its external image in spring 2023: Lidl, part of the Schwarz Group. TV presenter Günther Jauch has been enlisted as the face of the "For the Love of Nature" campaign ("Fachpack 360°" reported).

"At Lidl in Germany, more than 60 items of the beverage own brands ,Saskia', ,Freeway' and ,Solevita' have been available in recirculating bottles since summer 2021," Lidl writes. The body of these "circulation bottles" consists of 100 percent rPET. It is "one of the most ecological bottles in comparison to the examined commercially available returnable bottles" because "good one-way systems with a deposit [can] be just as climate-friendly as good returnable systems if they circulate the material." Deutsche Umwelthilfe voiced some criticism of the study's methodology, including that the comparison of disposables versus reusables was limp, to which Lidl in turn responded with a lengthy response.

Lidl's sister company Kaufland, in response to an inquiry from "Fachpack 360°," also names a number of products that now use less plastic or no plastic at all:
 
- Some yogurt and cream cheese items in the private label brands "K-Classic," "K-Free" and "K-take it veggie" carry reusable lids instead of plastic disposable lids. This saves around 60 tons of plastic per year. 
- The packaging of some products in the drugstore sector (Kaufland mentions shower gel and toothbrushes) consists of up to 100 percent recycled plastic. "Thus, a total of 12,187 tons of recyclate could be used at Kaufland in Germany in 2021."
- Cotton swabs and cosmetic tissue boxes from Bevola are now packaged in paper instead of plastic.
- Food is increasingly in paper packaging based on silphia plants. Kaufland cites salmon and fruit. The packaging comes from the group's own company Pre Zero.

Neither Lidl nor Kaufland provide a systematic overview like Edeka, not even in the Schwarz Group's "Sustainability Report FY 2020 / 2021". The entire industry is still a long way from cross-company standards and reporting - according to Tilisco, there are eleven different methods for measuring recyclability alone. 

"Missing" for concrete changes, however, no longer applies. The trade shows that it is on its way.

What is Edeka doing better? Headquarters may not judge, but says: "Basically, we all, manufacturers and retailers, certainly face the same challenges: limited availability of recyclates, regulatory restrictions on the use of recyclates, volatile supply chains and also costs."

Lidl: Bottle body made from 100 percent recyclate

Another retailer is even putting packaging at the center of its external image in spring 2023: Lidl, part of the Schwarz Group. TV presenter Günther Jauch has been enlisted as the face of the "For the Love of Nature" campaign ("Fachpack 360°" reported).

"At Lidl in Germany, more than 60 items of the beverage own brands ,Saskia', ,Freeway' and ,Solevita' have been available in recirculating bottles since summer 2021," Lidl writes. The body of these "circulation bottles" consists of 100 percent rPET. It is "one of the most ecological bottles in comparison to the examined commercially available returnable bottles" because "good one-way systems with a deposit [can] be just as climate-friendly as good returnable systems if they circulate the material." Deutsche Umwelthilfe voiced some criticism of the study's methodology, including that the comparison of disposables versus reusables was limp, to which Lidl in turn responded with a lengthy response.

Lidl's sister company Kaufland, in response to an inquiry from "Fachpack 360°," also names a number of products that now use less plastic or no plastic at all:
 
Some yogurt and cream cheese items in the private label brands "K-Classic," "K-Free" and "K-take it veggie" carry reusable lids instead of plastic disposable lids. This saves around 60 tons of plastic per year. 
- The packaging of some products in the drugstore sector (Kaufland mentions shower gel and toothbrushes) consists of up to 100 percent recycled plastic. "Thus, a total of 12,187 tons of recyclate could be used at Kaufland in Germany in 2021."
- Cotton swabs and cosmetic tissue boxes from Bevola are now packaged in paper instead of plastic.
- Food is increasingly in paper packaging based on silphia plants. Kaufland cites salmon and fruit. The packaging comes from the group's own company Pre Zero.

Neither Lidl nor Kaufland provide a systematic overview like Edeka, not even in the Schwarz Group's "Sustainability Report FY 2020 / 2021". The entire industry is still a long way from cross-company standards and reporting - according to Tilisco, there are eleven different methods for measuring recyclability alone. 

"Missing" for concrete changes, however, no longer applies. The trade shows that it is on its way.