Swedish food retailers want to phase out plastic

STOCKHOLM, April 8 (Xinhua) --- Swedish supermarket chains are joining forces to stop the use of environmentally harmful plastic, Swedish Television reported on Sunday.

Food retailers Axfood, Bergendahls, Coop, Ica and Lidl have launched a collaboration with the Fossil Free Sweden initiative, a government-backed body that aims to turn Sweden into a leader in the global fight against plastic.

"Today, there is a lack of access to fossil-free plastic," said Karin Brynell, CEO of the Swedish Food Retailers Federation, an organization for grocery retailers in Sweden. Brynell said that fossil-free plastic has been introduced in Sweden where possible. It is for instance used in plastic grocery bags. "But a major effort is needed," she said, "not least within research and product development".

The goal of the new collaboration is to ensure that all plastic packaging in Sweden is produced from renewable or recycled plastic by 2030, and that this should be achieved without introducing price hikes that would hit consumers.

"We think that when volumes increase, the price difference will not be so big. The ambition is to transition to fossil-free plastic without the consumer really noticing," said Brynell.

Plastic is one of the most common packaging materials within grocery retailing since it offers good protection during transports and extends the shelf life of many products. As a result, it also contributes to reducing food waste. However, the environmental impact is also significant since plastic is produced with oil, a raw fossil fuel, and can often not be recycled. While renewable plastic exists -- it is based mainly on sugar cane and is imported chiefly from Brazil -- it is only used in small scales as it is more costly.

"Today, consumers are relatively good at recycling their packaging but, on the other hand, a great deal of the packaging is not recyclable and so we can, already at the design stage of new products, ensure that we start using recyclable plastic," Brynell pointed out.

According to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, a total 212,500 tons of plastic were used in Swedish stores last year and Swedish retailers handed out 832 million plastic bags to customers. The aim is to reduce the use of thin plastic bags to 40 per person per year by 2025. Enditem