Recently, the ALDI SOUTH Group and ALDI Nord Group became members of the Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0. Additionally, the ALDI SOUTH Group joined RecyClass. Our membership of these groups will further strengthen ALDI’s commitment to tackle packaging and will support us in achieving our ambitious goals for the upcoming years.
Part of our vision to “make sustainability affordable to our customers” is to tackle plastic and packaging. The membership to the two initiatives, HolyGrail 2,0 and Recyclass, will help ALDI to advance on our various packaging goals. We are looking forward to effective collaboration across the packaging and plastics industry as we take the next steps toward establishing a circular economy for packaging.
Our international packaging goals
At the ALDI SOUTH Group, we are working to reduce raw material usage, save energy and improve water intensity, as well as to manage waste correctly. Our first step is to set ambitious goals for our own-brand product packaging to reduce material usage, increase recyclability, and incorporate recycled content.
Our goals:
- To make 100% of own-brand packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
- We will increase the recycled content used in our plastic product packaging. Our goal is to achieve 30% recycled content in our own-brand plastic packaging.
- We will minimise the material needed for our packaging, wherever possible. We will reduce new plastic made from crude oil and used for product packaging. Our goal is to reduce own-brand packaging material by 15%, and the amount of virgin plastic in our own-brand packaging by 40%.
HolyGrail 2.0
The Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0, driven by AIM - European Brands Association and powered by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, is a pilot project with the objective to prove the technical viability of digital watermarks for accurate sorting of packaging waste as well as the economic viability of the business case at large-scale. Digital watermarks are imperceptible codes, the size of a postage stamp, covering the surface of a consumer goods packaging and carrying a wide range of attributes.
The aim is that once the packaging has entered into a waste sorting facility, the digital watermark can be detected and decoded by a high-resolution camera on the sorting line, which then – based on the transferred attributes (e.g. food vs non-food) – is able to sort the packaging in corresponding streams. This would result in better and more accurate sorting streams, thus consequently in higher quality recyclates benefitting the complete packaging value chain.
RecyClass
RecyClass is a comprehensive cross-industry initiative that works to advance plastic packaging recyclability and to establish a harmonized approach towards recycled content calculation and its traceability in Europe. Activities within RecyClass include the development of Recyclability Evaluation Protocols and scientific testing methods for innovative materials which serve as the base for the Design for Recycling Guidelines and the Recycling Online Tool. RecyClass offers Recyclability Certifications for plastic packaging and Recycled Content Traceability Certification for plastic products.
