PRESS RELEASE: Batavia, Ill., September 8, 2020 – ALDI U.S. BB #:116756has joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative aimed at creating a path towards a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025.
The first North American Pact of its kind, the U.S. Plastics Pact is a collaboration led by The Recycling Partnership, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Ellen MacArthur Foundation and sets a strategy to create scalable solutions across sectors in an effort to drive significant change.
As part of the U.S. Plastics Pact, activators like ALDI U.S. recognize that significant, system-wide change is imperative to realize a circular economy for plastics. As such, the U.S. Plastics Pact will convene more than 60 brands, NGOs, government agencies and retailers, like ALDI, across the plastics value chain to bring one voice to U.S. packaging through coordinated initiatives and innovative solutions for rethinking products, packaging and business models.
“The global impact of plastics use cannot and should not be ignored by any business,” says Joan Kavanaugh, Vice President of Corporate Buying at ALDI U.S. “At ALDI, we’ve already begun finding ways to eliminate the plastics we don’t need and are innovating to uncover ways in which the plastics we do need can be kept in the economy and out of the environment – but we want to do even more. We are thrilled to join the U.S. Plastics Pact and look forward to collaborating with its other members to drive action toward
large-scale, collective change among the grocery industry and beyond.”
As a founding Activator of the U.S. Plastics Pact, ALDI U.S., along with other members of the pact, has agreed to contribute toward these four ambitious goals:
- Define a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025.
- By 2025, all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable.
- By 2025, undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging.
- By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.
While the U.S. Plastics Pact is complementary to, and follows the ambitious precedents set by the existing global network of Plastic Pacts, it will be tailored to meet the unique needs and challenges of the U.S. market. The U.S pact will reflect national priorities and realities, while still propelling the nation closer to other developed nations in its management of plastic waste.
“Together through the U.S. Plastics Pact, we will ignite system change to accelerate progress toward a circular economy,” says Sarah Dearman, Vice President of Circular Ventures for The Recycling Partnership. “The U.S. Pact will accelerate system-wide change by inspiring and supporting upstream innovation through a coordinated national strategy, creating a unified framework and enabling members to accelerate progress toward our ambitious 2025 sustainability goals. Members’ full participation will be
vital to reaching our shared goals.”
ALDI U.S. has prioritized addressing the global impact of plastics from the onset. In addition to the U.S. Plastics Pact ambitions, ALDI U.S. has committed to making its packaging more sustainable through its focus on recyclability across all operations, overall plastics reduction efforts and supplier partnerships to improve fiber sourcing.
Additionally, ALDI U.S. has not offered single-use plastic grocery bags for more than four decades, and encourages shoppers to bring their own reusable bags. By company estimates, this progressive business decision has helped keep approximately 15 billion single-use plastic bags out of landfills and oceans.
Achieving the U.S. Plastics Pact’s vision will require new levels of accountability from all facets of the plastics supply chain. The U.S. Plastics Pact emphasizes measurable change and as such, ALDI U.S. is committed to transparent, annual reporting, guided by WWF’s ReSource: Plastic Footprint Tracker, which will be used to document annual progress against the U.S. Plastics Pact’s four goals. The first task of the founding members of the U.S. Plastics Pact will be to establish a “roadmap” in Q1 2021 to identify key milestones and national solutions to achieving the U.S. targets and realize a circular economy in which plastic never becomes waste.
About ALDI U.S.
ALDI is one of America’s fastest growing retailers, serving millions of customers across the country each month. With more than 2,000 stores across 36 states, ALDI is on track to become the third-largest grocery retailer by store count by the end of 2022. When it comes to value, ALDI won’t be beat on price. For 10 years running, ALDI has held the esteemed title of Value Leader among U.S. grocery stores by Market Force Information**, and ALDI has been No. 1 for price according to the Dunnhumby Retailer Preference Index Report for three years running. Since 1976, ALDI has offered a unique shopping experience where customers Shop differentli® and never have to compromise on quality, selection or value. In fact, 1 in 3 ALDI-brand products are award-winning***. Customers can save time and money by conveniently shopping in-store or online at shop.aldi.us. ALDI also proudly serves as a Feeding America Leadership Partner, donating 30 million pounds of food each year in an effort to end hunger in America. For more information about ALDI, visit aldi.us.
*Curbside and delivery to limited geographic areas only. Prices may vary depending on the platform used. Additional fees apply to
curbside and delivery orders. Items on sale in the store may not be on sale through the Instacart platform. Prices and availability are
subject to delays or errors and may change without notice. As a result, the in-store price of a particular item at the time a purchase is made, including for weighted items, may differ from what is available through the Instacart platform. Additional fees apply to online orders.
**According to annual surveys of U.S. consumers conducted 2011-18 and 2020 by Market Force Information.®
***As of 1/29/20, based on an audit of everyday, nationally distributed ALDI-exclusive branded products.
About The Recycling Partnership
The Recycling Partnership is a national nonprofit organization that leverages corporate partner funding to transform recycling for good in states, cities, and communities nationwide. As the leading organization in the country that engages the full recycling supply chain from the corporations that manufacture products and packaging to local governments charged with recycling to industry end markets, haulers, material recovery facilities, and converters, The Recycling Partnership positively impacts recycling at every step in the process. Since 2014, the nonprofit change agent diverted 230 million pounds of new recyclables from landfills, saved 465 million gallons of water, avoided more than 250,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases, and drove significant reductions in targeted contamination rates. Learn more at www.recyclingpartnership.org.
