Aldi Is Officially Getting Rid of Single-Use Plastic Bags

The retailer is removing single-use plastic bags for fruits and vegetables in all 900 of their stores. Now, when going grocery shopping, you’ll bag your fruits and veggies in draw-string knapsacks made from recycled bottles. Great news, right? The knapsacks will post 25p a piece and you’ll be able to use it over and over again.

Aldi says this initiative will save more than 100 tonnes of plastic a year. In the UK, it is estimated that 5 million tonnes of plastic is used every year, nearly half of it being from packaging, according to a House of Commons Library Briefing Paper.

The UK government has an ambition to:

…work towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.

Last week, the UK banned plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds. More and more actions are being taken and put in place to reduce plastic consumption across the globe and these measures are what we desperately need right now.