Bring your own containers: Albert Heijn introduces package-free grocery shopping
It’s one of those slogans etched into your mind: ‘A better environment starts with you.’ Now, I think that extra minute I spend in the shower is less harmful than a decommissioned European ship being dumped somewhere in Africa (scandalous but true), but that doesn’t change the fact that I hate waste and support producing less rubbish. So if I can do my bit somewhere, I won’t hesitate. Bringing your own pots to the supermarket? Sounds like a great plan to me.
Albert Heijn is launching a new concept that allows you to do a large part of your daily grocery shopping more sustainably: AH Package-Free. It’s very simple: you fill a reusable bag or container with a product – for example muesli, pasta, sandwich spreads, tea or nuts – so you end up taking home far fewer disposable packages.
Seventy products
The package-free range consists of seventy products, from breakfast cereals and sandwich spreads to ingredients such as pasta and rice. Around eighty percent of the range (55 products) is organic, including products such as fonio, an African grain, and organic coffee beans.
From Rotterdam to Amsterdam
The Albert Heijn XL in Rotterdam is the first to introduce the new concept. Next up is the XL at Gelderlandplein in Amsterdam, followed by the XL in Leidschendam, and another fifty stores over the coming year.
Convenient dispensers
The new concept consists of six metres of package-free products in convenient dispensers. You can fill your own reusable container from the dispensers or buy a reusable jar or bag on the spot. Then you simply weigh the empty container, fill it with one of the seventy products and print a label that you use to pay at the checkout.
Read also:
- How long can you actually keep bacon?
- Guide: get the most out of your freezer
- Recipe: leftover wine cookies
