Source: obs/Kaufland
Cardboard conquers areas of plastics dominance.
Example: Self-service meat at Kaufland.
Thomas Reiner | 21.11.2019
There was no alternative yesterday. Retail pushes the change from plastic to cardboard and paper with unrestrained dynamics. Even the most demanding foods are not spared. The German supermarket chain Kaufland has recently started using an innovative meat packaging for the food industry, which consists mainly of cardboard.
According to the company, the packaging for minced meat from self-service saves 70 percent on plastic. Instead of a plastic bowl, Kaufland has been using a carton lined with a thin, recyclable plastic film in 30 stores since the beginning of October.
According to Kaufland, the film can be easily separated from the carton so that both materials can be recycled.
Not unimportant: the consumer has to play along. Information on the packaging shows how film and cardboard can be separated in order to dispose of them correctly. (In Germany: Film into the yellow bag. Cardboard in the waste paper container.)
Kaufland describes itself as the first food retailer to use carton-based packaging for self-service meat. The trend towards the substitution of plastic continues to gain momentum. As an important driver of this development, retailers are not only constantly looking for alternatives, they are also developing them and putting them on their shelves.
For the plastics industry this means that even in highly sensitive food areas that require complex protective and barrier functions, it is increasingly possible to do without (a lot) plastic. Even raw minced meat is no longer a home game.
The only certainty in times of sustainability and digital transformation remains constant change. A change that a company can track down, participate in or – with the right partner – actively shape.
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